


Brioso

by SantosPhillipCarlo



Category: League of Legends RPF, 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: Action, F/M, Friendship, Romance, Songfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-17 22:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13668624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SantosPhillipCarlo/pseuds/SantosPhillipCarlo
Summary: A tale of two groups' unlikely friendship, which starts over a lost wallet at KCON in Los Angeles. One is the legendary Girls' Generation, beloved the world over, while the other is Cloud 9's League of Legends team, carrying North America's hopes on its shoulders.As C9 arrives in Korea for the 2014 League of Legends World Championships, they learn of the drama surrounding SNSD that leaves the future of one of its members in doubt. Friendships between the groups, which have started at KCON, grow and evolve, and when one Soshi makes a decision that rocks both teams as the tournament progresses, Cloud 9 makes a choice that raises the stakes and transforms the relationship between the groups.If you had one song to sing, one battle to fight...who would it be for? Both groups are about to face that question...and the world is about to find out what their answers are.





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> Main storyline is complete but bonus content (including Fan Spotlights featuring other Wattpad authors) is ongoing. Bonus content now also guest-stars Heechul, F(x), EXO and Red Velvet.
> 
> Book of the Week (S'More) at Marshmallow Book Club on Wattpad for 12/10/2017-12/16/2017  
> Book of the Week at Wallflower Book Club on Wattpad for 1/21/2018–1/31/2018
> 
> Over 11,000 reads on Wattpad, plus over 900 votes
> 
>  
> 
> **Cover by Kurai_Sen (Wattpad)**  
> [](http://i.imgur.com/loMBgRh)  
> 

At KCON 2014 in Los Angeles, Girls' Generation was one of the headline acts. That year, OGN brought League of Legends to KCON for the first time, inviting CJ Entus Frost and Cloud 9 to play at the event, and C9 has photos with IU, Teen Top and VIXX to prove it. This gave me the idea to do a story based around C9 meeting SNSD as well and leading into the 2014 World Championships.

 **_Disclaimer:_ **_I own no trademarks related to Girls' Generation, Cloud 9, SM Entertainment, Riot Games or_ _ League of Legends _ _._

 _Major Characters_  
_-So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD / Girls' Generation)_ – entire OT9:  
**Tiffany**  (Stephanie) Hwang / Hwang Miyoung  
**Jessica**  Jung / Jung Sooyeon  
Kim  **Taeyeon** – Leader  
Im  **Yoona**  
Lee Soonkyu ( **Sunny** )  
Seo Joohyun ( **Seohyun** )  
Kim  **Hyoyeon**  
Kwon  **Yuri**  
Choi  **Sooyoung**

 _Below –_  Girls' Generation at KCON 2014.   
From left to right: Taeyeon, Yuri, Hyoyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Jessica, Seohyun and Yoona (Sooyoung was absent due to a drama filming, and this is mentioned in the story)

- _Cloud 9_   _League of Legends_  
_Actual Players:_  
**Hai**  Du Lam – Mid Laner / Captain  
Zach Scuderi ( **Sneaky** ) – AD Carry  
Will Hartman ( **Meteos** ) – Jungler  
An Van Le ( **Balls** ) – Top Laner  
DaerekHart ( **LemonNation** ) – Support

 _Original Characters:_  
Phillip  **Carlo**  Santos – Top Laner (my character)  
Caroline  **Aurora**  Lea – Support (based on a friend of mine who plays  _League_ , and the only Canadian on the team)

 _Below –_  All five actual Cloud 9 players as they looked while actually meeting IU at KCON 2014.   
From left to right behind IU: Meteos, LemonNation, Balls, Sneaky and Hai

_Additional Background_  
Ahead of Cloud 9 playing at All-Stars (now divided into the Mid-Season Invitational, or MSI, and All-Stars) 2014 in Paris, not only is Hai  hospitalized with a collapsed lung, but LemonNation is also hospitalized after a freak accident breaks his arm. As stand-ins, Cloud 9 calls up two players who have played on their Tempest sister team in the Challenger Series: support Aurora and mid laner Carlo, both of whom are also K-Pop fans. The team shocks all comers and wins the All-Star  Invitational, and as a result, they elect to have Aurora and Carlo become starters for the NA LCS Summer Split, with Carlo swapping to top  laner and LemonNation also becoming a coach in addition to a substitute. When the team is invited to play at KCON, they hold first place in the NA LCS and are tipped by many to win their third straight championship ** _._**

 _Korean Terms In This Story_ (Note: if there's something not on this list that you want clarified, don't hesitate to message me!)  
_Honorifics_  
_Noona –_ boy to older girl  
_Unnie –_ girl to older girl  
_Oppa –_ girl to older boy (can be used to address a boyfriend)  
_Hyung –_ boy to older boy  
_-ah/-yah –_ for someone the same age or younger (affectionate)

 _General Terms_  
_Annyeong haseyo –_ "Hello" (formal)  
_Yoboseyo –_ "Hello" (phone conversation)  
_Saranghaeyo –_ "I/we love you"  
_Mianhe_ ** _–_** "I'm sorry"  


_Trailer_  – Published July 10th, 2017 by the one and only [AlexStarAlvarez](https://www.wattpad.com/user/AlexStarAlvarez) on Wattpad!


	2. KCON – Collision of Worlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glossary (for those new to K-Pop and League)  
>  _KCON_ – A Korean music and entertainment festival that originated in Los Angeles in 2012 that has become a hot ticket for American fans of K-Pop and Hallyu (Korean Wave) entertainment. Beginning in 2015, additional KCON events have been held in Abu Dhabi, Chiba, Paris, Jeju and Newark.
> 
>  _LCS_ – the League of Legends Championship Series, Riot Games' official professional League of Legends competition in North America and Europe and the premier event for the game on either continent.
> 
>  _Girls' Generation_ – A legendary K-Pop girl group that debuted in 2007 and is signed to SM Entertainment. Their hits include _Gee_ , _Genie_ , _Oh!_ , _Party_ and _I Got A Boy_. Their Korean name is _So Nyuh Shi Dae_ (abbreviated to SNSD), of which Girls' Generation is a rough English translation. Among their many awards are wins at the Seoul Music Awards (the K-Pop equivalent of the Grammys) and a 2013 YouTube Music Award which they won competing against Western artists.
> 
>  _Cloud 9_ – an American E-Sports team that Hai co-founded in 2013 as a League of Legends team. At the time of the story, they have already expanded into _DotA 2_ , _Hearthstone_ and _Super Smash Bros._
> 
>  _Top laner_ – as the name suggests, this player is responsible for the top lane in League of Legends. Champions that a top-laner might play are often tankier (more resilient) ones but can also include fighters, mages and even marksmen.
> 
>  _Mid laner_ – as the name suggests, this player is responsible for the middle lane in League of Legends (and therefore the shortest path between the opposing teams' bases.) They tend to be especially strong mechanically. Also often called AP (Ability Power) Carry because the mid-laner is often tasked with being the team's primary magical damage dealer.

**_KCON 2014_ **  
**_Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California, USA_ **  
**_August 9th_ **

It was not long after Girls' Generation had performed at KCON as one of the headline acts, and Tiffany Hwang was anxiously searching around backstage for a wallet she had lost just before their performance, when she had gone to  buy water for some of the other members while on a pre-performance walk.

As she turned around a corner, she saw a pretty  and fair-skinned girl who looked familiar. She was wearing a skirt that went past her knees, plus dark blue Mary Janes with no socks, and had long blonde hair  with tips in a shade of blue slightly darker than her shirt, which bore a logo and the name "Cloud 9 HyperX". Close by her was an Asian boy with short black gelled hair and slightly tanned skin wearing tan khakis, black Nikes and the same shirt, and in his hands was the wallet she was  seeking. Both were anxiously looking around.

"Excuse me, is there anyone who lost a wallet?" He was asking, evidently worried about returning it to its owner. At that moment, the blonde girl close to him turned her back.

Relieved and excited, Tiffany immediately rushed over to him.

* * *

Whilst the rest of the team had been meeting IU, Teen Top and VIXX, I had found the wallet lying on the floor. I hadn't even looked at its contents thoroughly for any clues as to who the owner might be – the last thing I wanted was for the person to find me at that moment and think I was a thief. Aurora had offered to go with me to look for who it  belonged to – or give it to Lost & Found if it took too long. Neither of us was counting on me getting surprised – ganked, if you will – by a very attractive lady who was still wearing the black and white dress I'd just seen her wearing onstage.

"Oh, thank you!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry – I was just worried sick about it because I went onstage without knowing if it had been recovered."

"It's okay – I'm just glad we could help!" I said instinctively, before I realized just who she was and simultaneously got chills and felt my heart race.

"Oh, my God...Tiffany  _noona_  from Girls' Generation?" I managed to say.

"Yes, I am!" She said, giving me the famous eye smile that made people's hearts – mine included – skip a beat. Then she asked, "Carlo from Cloud 9?"

"Yes! But how the heck do  _you_  know?" I knew I was wearing the team shirt, but I was bewildered at knowing one of my favorite artists/idols knew who I was.

"Don't you know? When you beat SKT to win All-Stars, it was big news in Korea. Sica and I decided to start watching you guys in the LCS when we could and we sometimes watch yours and Aurora's streams. Thanks for playing our music to support us!"

This was true – while streaming, Aurora and I had made it our habit to play K-Pop to the point  that we had been recognized as not just fans but K-Pop friendly streamers who had folks donating on Twitch to ask if we could play this or that. We half-joked (because we knew it was also true) that we used our streams as personal radio stations as well, and so we'd happily played  _Genie_ ,  _Run Devil Run, Kissing You_  and  _The Boys_ , among other songs, for sizable audiences, even though Meteos and especially Sneaky remained our most popular streamers.

That said, though, I was astounded to have Tiffany giving me a quick but tight hug – accidentally, almost  _too_  tight.

"Oh, you're too kind! Easy, though...Fany  _noona!"_  I said, having the air squeezed out of me for an instant.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She responded. "I didn't hurt you too much, did I?"

"No, don't worry, you didn't." I assured her. Then I tried to make light of  it and said, "Mind you, and here I was worrying about getting overexcited."

We both shared a laugh as Aurora came rushing back, having heard the shouts.

"Carlo! Are you all –  _Oh, my God!_ " She started concerned and finished with a squeal as she saw Tiffany. She knew who she was instantly, but she was literally stunned into silence. Her eyes were wide as her hands flew to her mouth and stayed there.

"Hello, Aurora." Tiffany said kindly. "I'm glad to meet you!"

"F-Fany  _unnie_?" Aurora managed to say, almost squeaking as she lowered her hands slowly.

"That's me!" Tiffany replied, as I handed her back her lost wallet.

"Wait, that was  _your_  wallet?" Aurora asked, astounded, before saying, "I'm so glad we were able to help!"

"You're not going to believe this, but she was just telling me that she started  watching us after what we did at All-Stars. She's also heard of us playing K-Pop, including their music, on stream." I said.

"Hey, she's not the only one. Way to go so far, Aurora – and I'm glad to meet you too!" Another female voice said.

We turned to see that Jessica had arrived. Tiffany looked from her to Aurora and me and smiled, while the two of us had another heart attack.

"No way. Her  _too_?" Aurora was almost hysterical from excitement by now, and I could understand why – Jessica was her favorite.

"Oh yes, her too." Tiffany said, and she and I both nodded with big grins on our faces.

"Oh...Sica  _unnie!"_   Aurora cried, throwing her arms around her just as Jessica opened hers.  She was unable to contain tears of joy as she managed to say,  _"Saranghaeyo..."_

"Oh, Aurora- _yah_ ,  _saranghaeyo_." Jessica said, visibly moved as she hugged her back. They came apart briefly, and she finished, "We're glad you're supporting us – keep supporting us too and let's keep winning, all right?"

"Let's do it." Aurora said, wiping away her happy tears.

Jessica gave her one more squeeze and then turned to me to give me a hug as well. "That goes for you too, Carlo – I'm glad I get to meet you too!"

" _Annyeong haseyo_ , Jessica  _noona_." I said, doing my best to keep my wits about me and pronounce and articulate properly. "We're all over the moon about this – before we get  any further, we saw you gals onstage and you guys were fantastic. Lived up to the hype and then some!"

"Thank you very much!" Jessica replied. Then she heard footsteps, looked over and back at us,  and her smile grew as she added. "Oh, don't look now, but here come the girls."

Sure enough, the other six Girls' Generation  members who were there that day were approaching. Aurora's hands went to  her mouth again and I was merely able to mouth, "Oh, my God." Seeing how overwhelmed we were, Jessica supportively gave Aurora a sideways hug while Tiffany took my shoulder.

"It's okay, we got it!" Tiffany said, raising the wallet. "These two found it and were trying to return it."

"Yay!" Hyoyeon cheered. Then she looked again at us and asked, "Hang on...that's Carlo and Aurora from Cloud 9  _League_ , isn't it?"

"It is! Oh, that's right, they were playing here today as well!" Yuri exclaimed.

"Did well too. At this rate, we'll be seeing them come to Korea for Worlds!" Taeyeon said, making Aurora and me go red but also smile.

As if that wasn't enough, our five original members – Hai, Sneaky, Meteos, LemonNation and Balls – also arrived at about the same time, also wearing pants and team shirts. Sneaky and LemonNation were also wearing white C9 hoodies.

"Wait, what the hell...?" Sneaky managed to say as he saw everybody.

"Whoa!" Balls and LemonNation said almost simultaneously.

"Holy crap, that's SNSD!" Hai exclaimed.

"Wait, am I hearing right? Do they seriously know who we are?" Meteos asked.

The excited chatter continued for a few more seconds before Hai decided to speak up.

"All right, let's slow down a bit here - with your permission, of course, Taeyeon." He said, looking straight at his opposite number, who smiled  and nodded appreciatively as we quieted down. Feeling bolder, he smiled back and said, "Obviously, introductions are in order, so let's do it this way. Aurora's let us know that Sooyoung couldn't make it because of a drama filming," Here, he indicated Aurora, who nodded, before he  finished, "and she and Carlo have done their best to educate the rest of us about you guys. Let's see how far one of us can get with naming  everybody before they step in. Does that sound good?"

"I think that does sound good!" Seohyun said, and the others quickly agreed. "Okay, who wants to try? And don't feel bad if you can't get us all – I know it can be a challenge."

Balls bravely volunteered. He correctly named Taeyeon (his favorite), Jessica, Tiffany, Sunny and Yoona before he blanked out, leaving Aurora and me to clean up and name Hyoyeon, Seohyun and Yuri.

"Not bad at all!" Taeyeon told us with a smile. "Okay, now our turn – I'm guessing you're looking for someone other than Tiffany or Jessica who knows all your names, right?"

"Yes." Aurora replied.

"I do!" Sunny piped up.

"Oh, this'll be something if Sunny knows too. Go ahead – and I suggest taking out the two 'easier' ones first." I said, using my fingers to  mime quotation marks and indicating Aurora and myself.

"Certainly. Aurora and Carlo..." She said, indicating the two of us as we nodded and smiled back.

Then she turned to our AD Carry with the short messy brown hair. "Sneaky..."

"Oh!" Sneaky exclaimed in a cute moan – as he would later say, a cute version of the Kreygasm.

"Meteos..." Here, she indicated our jungler, who had curly blond hair and was the tallest of any of us.

"Oh God." Meteos said, unable to supress a big smile at Sunny knowing and saying his name that way.

"Balls..."  Sunny said, indicating our short Vietnamese sub top laner, who is the other  big K-Pop fan on the team besides Aurora and me.

"Aw, you're awesome, Sunny." Balls said, smiling and waving.

"Thanks." She said, before turning to our bearded, slightly balding coach and sub support, "Lemon..."

"Glad to meet you guys." He said, holding out his hand, which Sunny shook.

"And finally...Hai." She finished, indicating our Chinese/Vietnamese mid-laner, captain and shotcaller.

Every one of our team members started clapping. Sunny found herself getting high fives often and fast.

"Holy s**t." Sneaky said, unable to stop himself from laughing.

"Yooo...this is too good!" Hai exclaimed as he finished shaking Sunny's hand.

"Yeah, man, stop the presses. Girls' Generation knows the names of every single C9  _LoL_  player?" Meteos asked, in a manner that suggested that he, like the rest of us, couldn't believe it.

"Hey, Frost is gonna beso mad at us..." Balls said with a grin.

"Hey,  we beat them fair and square, so no disrespect to them, but I'm not too  worried about them." I said. As Yuri and Taeyeon had alluded to, we  weren't just there at KCON as fans – we had actually played CJ Entus Frost in a few showmatches earlier that day as part of the KCON  _League of Legends_  Champions Festival organized by OGN...and had scored a clean sweep. We'd won a Dominion and an ARAM with our starters, two 1v1s with Hai beating CoCo and Balls beating Shy, and even a 2v2 with Sneaky and Lemon, our classic bottom lane duo, beating Space and MadLife.

"Yeah,  MadLife got asked about his type among you guys and he said Yoona." Aurora said, turning back to Girls' Generation and specifically the  member in question. This was true – before play had started, there had  been an onstage Q&A.

"Oh, really?" Yoona said. "That's nice to hear...but I think I'd rather spend time with Cloud 9."

"Oh, God...You're too kind!" Aurora squeaked.

"You guys are gonna have to carry me out of here at this rate." I told our teammates, half jokingly and half seriously.

* * *

As  we went back to the team house, we couldn't stop talking about that  meeting, even as we talked about the exhibition, the performances we'd  seen and the other stars we'd met.

"Hey, I'm not as much of a Koreaboo as Aurora or Carlo or even Balls, but that was pretty sweet." Sneaky said. Meteos and Lemon nodded along with him.

"On  another note...you guys are probably the envy of a hell of a lot of Girls' Generation fans out there, especially the guys." Our boss, Jack,  said with a big grin.

"Yeah, dude, we are going to get memed to death if we start misplaying." Meteos said knowingly. "The moment we start even looking like we're slumping, Reddit's gonna be like, 'Is Girls' Generation to blame for C9's poor performance?'"

"Hey, only one way to prevent that for sure, right?" Hai said.

"Oh, yeah. Keep winning." I said with a grin.

Unbidden, I found myself looking at the sky and remembering what we and Girls' Generation had said as we'd thanked each other and gone our separate  ways for the moment.

Tiffany had said, "Hey, keep up the great work! If you get to Worlds, we can meet and talk as early as boot camp if both of our groups aren't too busy." The other Soshis had nodded  in agreement and smiled at us.

I had replied, "That would be awesome. We'll do our best!" Likewise, the rest of us had agreed to it – even Sneaky, Meteos and Lemon.

I knew somehow that we all could make it happen and I was resolved to do what I could...but none of us had any idea about the road we would end up walking together when we did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like this start! The next chapter will include at least the start of boot camp. Reviews are always welcome, but I do ask for no flaming just because you're not a fan of SNSD, Cloud 9 or North American _League_.


	3. Group Stage – Into The Breach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **  
> **  
>  _Glossary_  
>   
>  _AD (Attack Damage) Carry_ – Also abbreviated to ADC, this player in _League of Legends_ is tasked with being the team's primary physical damage dealer. To help accomplish this, he or she almost invariably picks a marksman so he or she can attack more safely. Most commonly, this is one of the two players responsible for the bottom lane.
> 
>  _Jungler_ – This player in _League of Legends_ is responsible for the jungle (the areas between the lanes) where neutral monsters and objectives reside. His or her responsibilities include protecting teammates and applying pressure to opponents while keeping eyes on the enemy jungler. A jungler's champion pool can be varied and can include assassins, fighters, mages, tanks and even marksmen.
> 
>  _Support_ – As this name suggests, this player in _League of Legends_ typically does not aim to deal damage but instead help the team with vision and engaging and disengaging from fights. Despite the fact that they deal often negligible damage, their abilities can often win fights, because if they land, they can provide the openings that their teammates need to take out their opponents.
> 
>  _Boot camp_ – In the _League of Legends_ context, this refers to a team traveling abroad to a more challenging environment for a period of time in order to practice. Many teams hold boot camps in Korea, especially before Worlds, because it offers both the best opponents in ranked play and there is a low ping (meaning low lag.)
> 
>  _Ddeokbokki_ – Stir-fried rice cakes, often including fish cake, boiled egg and scallion – a very popular street food in South Korea.

**_2014_ ** **_ League of Legends _ ** **_World Championship_ **  
**_Group Stage Week 1 – Groups A & B_ **  
**_National Taiwan University Sports Center, Taipei, Taiwan_ **  
**_September 18th – 21st_ **

As it turns out, we did keep the memes at bay, finishing first in the NA LCS regular season and booking a trip to PAX Prime in Seattle for the playoffs. There, we beat Counter Logic Gaming in the semifinals (CLG would get our third and final Worlds spot with a win over Team Curse in the 3rd place match), which booked our Worlds spot – and then defeated Team SoloMid for a third straight time to complete an NA LCS three-peat and secure a top seed at Worlds. Our eyes immediately turned to Worlds, though, knowing we had to be a spearhead for the North American and Western assault on the summit, and our comments showed it.

We had a day back at the team house to get our things ready for boot camp in Korea, and as we got back to Los Angeles, packed and then headed to the airport, we started messaging Girls' Generation again to see if we could, in fact, meet again. However, by the time we were boarding our 13-hour flight to Seoul, we were aware that something was very wrong over there. While everyone was happy to hear from us again, just about every member was either busy, trying to gather themselves or both – and there was serious noise about whether Jessica could be out.

By the time we arrived at Fraser Place in Central Seoul and made our base there in a good condominium-sized suite with a practice space looking out over the city, we – especially Aurora and I – were unable to extricate ourselves from the situation. The first night that we streamed, while we were in between placements, the two of us would often turn off our headsets and discuss what we had heard and continued to hear from the Soshis about what was going on over there without the fans watching on Twitch overhearing us.

Later that night, Hai was on the phone with Taeyeon out of view of our stream face cameras. It was a good thing Aurora and I, who were duoing, were still in queue, which meant we could focus our attention on what was happening.

"Okay, so segue into fashion, looking to launch Blanc and Eclaire...possibly wanting to date..." Hai said, summarizing what we had been hearing. "I understand better now...We actually had a similar situation earlier this year after I came back from..."

He stopped, and Aurora and I both started. Sneaky had taken off his headset, come over and asked if he could talk to Taeyeon.

Aurora and I looked at each other. Sneaky was a notorious memer...was the idea of him talking to Taeyeon at a time like this crazy or so crazy that it was a good idea? Both Aurora and I canceled out of queue, took off our headsets and came over as Hai told Taeyeon that Sneaky wanted to talk to her and handed him the phone.

"Hello?" Sneaky asked.

"Hello, Sneaky!" Taeyeon said, sincere but obviously running low on energy. "I'm sorry we're like this as you're arriving – I was hoping we'd be in better shape to welcome you to Korea better."

"It's okay." Sneaky said, his voice letting her and us know he understood the gravity of the situation. "Look, Taeyeon  _noona_. I know I'm the last person you expect to hear this from...maybe the last person you  _want_  to hear this from. But I know how you feel. Would you be willing to hear me out?"

"Yes, I would." She replied.

"Great. Now, before we go on, I need to let you know...I'm very liable to cuss, especially when I'm trying to make a point at a time like this." He said.

"I understand." She answered.

Hai, Aurora and I all grinned – we knew it wouldn't be Sneaky if he toned it down completely.

"You know how we met Carlo and Aurora, right?" Sneaky asked. "Or at least how they first really got into the team - because Hai and Lemon were injured."

"Yes, I do remember, just before All-Stars." Taeyeon answered.

"When we got back after the tournament, Hai wasn't able to – well, still hasn't been, actually – able to practice as much as he wanted because his wrists have been giving him trouble. He wanted to keep playing but also started looking at a role in the business side of our team sometime since his playing days looked numbered – he basically is our co-founder, after all." Sneaky narrated.

He then added, "We wondered if it'd be the best idea to keep him on or try to build using our All-Star lineup, but we deliberated and decided after some scrims and queues we did to go with what you saw in the summer – keeping Hai mid and moving Carlo top. Obviously, the results speak for themselves. Maybe he's not the best mechanically at this point, but there are things about him that make him very tough to replace, even if at times, his famous shotcalling can border on riding our a**es all game – well, Meteos's and mine, anyway."

Hai was nodding. Aurora and I both wore even darker looks for a second as we remembered those days. We wanted to play, but we hated that our All-Star success had created that problem of who to play and where.

"I hear you. And I'm not happy about how this has been going..." Taeyeon said, and we could start to hear her crying. "Sica was once the one I was closest to, so there have been times where I have wondered how and why this happened or why we're even discussing this! But...I just want to protect Girls' Generation."

"I know. And I believe you, because I want to protect Cloud 9 too." Sneaky said consolingly, before finishing urgingly, "But you say she was once your best friend or one of your best – well, remember that! Remember that's your fam!"

He then finished, "I can't say I'm as vested in you guys as, say, Aurora and Carlo, but I do know this. My guess is the eight of you have at least some say in what happens and all I can say is you better be f**king careful about what you vote for. I know there are times where you can't stand somebody you work with or wonder if you'd be better off without them, but even then...you might not know what you've got until it's gone. You can take what I'm saying or leave it, but you've got our support and our top laner worried...f**k, you might say even  _I'm_  a little worried, so there's no way I  _can't_  say this."

"No, I'll keep it in mind. I promise. Thanks a lot for telling me that, Sneaky. And thanks for hearing me out too, Hai...maybe all I needed was a chance to vent to someone not in our company." Taeyeon responded. "Please don't let us hold you up just because we're like this – I know it's your first night of boot camp and there's precious little time before Worlds starts."

"We're on it." Hai said. "Talk to you soon, all right?"

"Yeah, talk to you soon." Sneaky agreed. Aurora and I stayed silent because we didn't want Taeyeon to feel overwhelmed, but we nodded.

"Okay, I'm looking forward to it. Until next time." Taeyeon said.

"Oh, my God..." Aurora breathed as we heard the hangup.

"You all right, Sneaky?" Hai asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine." Sneaky replied. "I might need a shower after all of that, but I'm seriously glad I went through it." He managed a laugh, and so did we.

"Hey, I didn't know you were supporting them too." Aurora said, now smiling slightly again.

"It's a bit hard  _not_  to since they were kind to us at KCON and since there is a song or two of theirs I definitely don't mind." Sneaky responded, managing a grin himself. "Not to mention you, Aurora and Balls playing their music a lot while I've also been playing it myself from donation requests...they've grown on me, basically."

"You know what I'm thinking?" Hai asked.

"What's that?" Aurora questioned.

"There's no way we lose to any of these guys in our group after that." Hai replied determinedly.

"Feels that way. Let's go get back to work and make sure we make that a reality." I said, nodding.

After our next placement game, Aurora and I checked our phones to find that Jessica was downstairs and offering to take the two of us out to grab some Korean street food to snack on while we continued our prep. We told Sneaky we'd take a break to meet someone who would help us get something to eat but didn't yet tell who it was. Thirty minutes later, we were back with a batch of bags containing a variety of street food, including  _ddeokbokki, sundae gopchang_ ,  _odeng_ , baby  _gimbap_ , egg bread and sweet potato sticks.

"Mmm...that's actually good!" Sneaky said, once he had tried the  _ddeokbokki_  and sweet potato sticks. "Who was the person who took you guys around to get this stuff picked up?"

"Jessica actually took us out and showed us some good places." Aurora answered.

"Really? I'll seriously have to thank her." Sneaky said.

"We all need to, man." I said. "She said she also did it to make sure we got to have some local food early and that we weren't relying on fast food." I looked at him pointedly as I finished – I'd felt he'd started relying on burgers slightly too much. Sneaky just nodded as if to say he understood.

"Who paid for it?" Hai asked, as he brought a plate with some  _sundae_  and  _odeng_  back to his station.

"She did." I said sheepishly, even though I'd known there was no sense arguing with her when she had said she would. "Said it was a gift welcoming us to Korea and a present for winning NA LCS again."

"Oh, man, that's too awesome." Meteos said. "That's super kind of her."

We all nodded – and would have said something too if we didn't all have something in our mouths, savoring the food before our next games.

* * *

The following week after a successful boot camp, we made the relatively short trip to Taipei for the opening week of Worlds. This particular year, the group stage was being split over two countries and two weeks, with Groups A and B playing the first week in Taiwan and Groups C and D playing the second week in Singapore. As was tradition, it would be a double round robin with each team playing every group stage opponent twice – once on blue side and once on red side, which also affected drafts.

We'd been drawn into Group B and had the fortune of facing no Korean teams right off the bat, although we did have to go against a Taiwanese team playing at home in AHQ, the previous year's Worlds runner-up in Star Horn Royal Club (who had two Korean players on their team, including legendary jungler InSec, who had won the IEM World Championship in Katowice in March with KT Rolster Bullets, in addition to a star Chinese AD Carry in Uzi), and a longtime European rival in Fnatic, who still had two members of their team that had won the inaugural World Championship in xPeke and Cyanide. This is how the Group B rosters looked as we had been going over them:

 ** _Cloud 9 (North America)_**  
Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)  
Jungle - Meteos (Will Hartman, USA)  
Mid - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)  
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)  
Support - Aurora (Carolina Aurora Lea, Canada)  
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)  
Coach/Emergency Sub - LemonNation (Daerek Hart, USA)

 ** _Fnatic (Europe)_**  
Top - Soaz (Paul Boyer, France)  
Jungle - Cyanide (Lauri Happonen, Finland)  
Mid - xPeke (Enrique Cedeño Martinez, Spain)  
AD Carry - Rekkles (Martin Larsson, Sweden)  
Support - YellowStar (Bora Kim, France)  
Substitute - Araneae (Alvar Martin Aleñar, Spain)  
Coach - Toyz (Kurtis Lau/Lau Wai-Kin, Hong Kong)

 ** _Star Horn Royal Club (China)_**  
Top - Cola (Jiang Na, China)  
Jungle - InSec (Choi Inseok, South Korea)  
Mid - Corn (Lei Wen, China)  
AD Carry - Uzi (Jian Zi-Hao, China)  
Support - Zero (Yoon Kyungsup, South Korea)  
Substitute - LaoPi (Wong Wing-Cheong, Hong Kong)  
Coach - Vical (Kim Sunmook, South Korea)

 ** _AHQ E-Sports Club (Southeast Asia)_**  
Top - Prydz (Chen Kuang-Feng, Taiwan)  
Jungle - Naz (Chen Tien-Chih, Taiwan)  
Mid - Westdoor (Liu Shu-Wei, Taiwan)  
AD Carry - GarnetDevil (Lai Yi-Meng, Taiwan)  
Support - GreenTea (Tsai Shang-Ching, Taiwan)

We didn't miss a beat, though. After beating AHQ on the first day out of four group stage days in Taipei and also managing to win over a good-sized crowd, we beat Fnatic and Royal on Day 2 to take sole possession of first place in the group. 

While we were glad that we had managed to start strong with all eyes on us, our thoughts as a whole seldom strayed far from our new friends. Following our huge Day 2, Aurora messaged Jessica after Jessica had congratulated her:

_Dear Sica unnie,_

_Thanks a lot! I have to confess..our two opponents today made me think about you a bit. Fnatic's mid-laner, xPeke, wants to start his own team someday and Royal's jungler, InSec, left the KT Bullets after they won the IEM World Championship this past March for a better-paying deal. If you think that it's time to spread your wings...I'd be sad to see the Girls' Generation I grew up with lose somebody, but I'd understand too. You've more than earned our loyalty. I apologize if I sound a little nuts...but I wanted to say that before anything else happens._

_–Aurora_

Aurora didn't have to wait too long for a reply. She showed it to me when it arrived, and it read,

_Dear Aurora,_

_Thanks a lot for the kind words! Your loyalty means a lot to me – I'll keep trying hard no matter what so I can be worthy of being someone you look up to and follow. I'm glad to report the rest of the group came to a consensus and submitted a recommendation that I not be forced to leave. It's out of our hands now and up to the people upstairs at SM, but I can't say how happy I am._

_On that note, no matter what, make sure you keep winning. Watching the action – especially Cloud 9 – has been one of the things that has gotten me through these times._

_–Sica_

"Whew, that's a huge relief." I said. "Not out of the woods yet, but at least she avoids the worst-case scenario – being kicked by the others."

"No kidding." Aurora said. She went off to show the others, and while she was doing so, my iPhone went off with a text message alert. I looked down and drew a sharp breath.

_Dear Carlo,_

_Don't worry about us too much. You and your teammates are special and have the chance to do something that no one in your region has done before. Not everyone, whether it's in music, E-Sports or whatever, gets that chance. We took it and it got us to where we are today. I know you're kind people who care about what happens to those around you, but I don't want you to miss this shot because of us._

_–Fany_

I was unable to keep a smile off my face, and I wrote my reply as resolve replaced fear before Aurora saw my expression as I was finishing and sending it.

"Oh, who's texting you?" She asked.

"Fany  _noona_. Get a load of this." I replied. As she leaned closer, I showed her the message and my reply, which read,

_Dear Fany noona,_

_Thanks a lot. Hearing what we heard from you guys both means a lot and takes a lot off of our minds. We'll absolutely do our best – we do strive to be professional after all – but at the end of the day, we're your friends and we're human, so we can only help it so much. But I will say this – we absolutely fully intend to blast this group stage and get back to Korea as a front-runner. Hope we can talk again then._

_–Carlo_

I didn't show anyone the reply I got from her until sometime later, but it read,

_Dear Carlo,_

_Thank you very much! Of course we can! I should have some time available when you get back. Now make sure you keep your eyes on the prize!_

_–Fany_

* * *

Later that night, we were unwinding with some 1v1s. Hai was playing Kennen against Sneaky's Draven when Meteos snuck behind Sneaky and covered his eyes.

"Oh, f**k you! No!" Sneaky yelled, although he was smiling. Hai, laughing the most of any of us at what was going on, had taken the opportunity to go in with Lightning Rush and get the kill.

"Hey, don't be mad at me, be mad at Sooyoung. It was her idea." Meteos said earnestly, holding up his phone.

"Really?" Sneaky asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, check this out." Meteos said.

The round was over, so we all came over to see what she had sent:

_Dear Meteos (or should that be Memeos?),_

_I wanted to remind you since I know the pressure is on and all of you are sparing a thought for us...Keep everyone loose. I know myself some humor at a time like this hardly ever hurt anyone and I expect you and Sneaky do too. Keep up the great work!_

_–Sooyoung_

"Oh, nice!" Sneaky said, high-fiving him along with the rest of us. "She's right, of course, but I just have one question...I get why she messaged you, but why the f**k didn't she text me too?"

"I dunno. Maybe she wants you to step your game or your meme game up?" Meteos asked with a grin.

* * *

We beat Royal and AHQ one more time each on Day 3 to get to 5-0, leaving our second game against Fnatic on the last day of Groups A & B. Fnatic had also qualified after going 4-1 while Royal had only managed a 1-4 mark, meaning we and Fnatic had already secured our quarterfinal spots. There was still a lot to play for, though – if Fnatic won, they would force a tiebreaker and would have the chance to overtake us, which was a big deal because the winner of Group B would play the runner-up from Group A as opposed to the Group A winner.

On the night before that last day of group play in Taipei, Aurora called us over and showed us the latest message she had received from a Soshi, which further loosened us up:

_Dear Aurora,_

_Don't worry. Play loose. I got my wish. You'll be hearing about it on the news. I'll explain everything when you get back to Korea._

_–Sica_

It was a good thing we were able to take that off our minds because we had to deal with a big undexpected problem much closer to home the next day. Hai's text to Taeyeon told the story:

_Dear Taeyeon noona,_

_Meteos and I had something funny at breakfast this morning...we're being looked at by EMTs right now for food poisoning. We should be fine for our quarterfinal, but it wouldn't be the best idea if we tried to play today, so Balls and Lemon are in. Is there a chance they could get messages too so they don't feel left out?_

_–Hai_

It didn't take ten minutes before Hai got a response:

_Dear Hai,_

_That's awful! But I'm glad to hear it doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for letting me know – I have an idea of who they'd want to hear from. Knowing the members I'll talk to, they'd be all too happy to wish them well._

_–Taeyeon_

The remaining five of us didn't know just yet, though – we were getting ready backstage back at the National Taiwan University Sports Center. With less than 30 minutes to go until we took the stage, Lemon's phone went off with a text message alert. He opened it and smiled before turning his phone so we could read it:

_Dear Lemon,_

_Go get 'em today! I know you're ready, though. Hyoyeon and I both wanted to ask if you're going to bring the Death Note back onstage today. Maybe you can't brute force Fnatic as much without Meteos and Hai, but you can certainly outsmart them, and I certainly believe in all of you. C9 Fighting!_

_–Yuri_

"That's cool!" Aurora said. "And I see you've got that covered." She finished, indicating the trademark blue and white C9 notebook containing our drafting strategies.

"Made doubly sure that I had it when I knew I was in today." LemonNation replied proudly.

"Nice! So that must mean Balls' message isn't that far off..." Sneaky said.

He was pretty much right – only it wasn't a text. Balls's phone rang less than a minute later.

"Hello?" He asked. "Oh, hi, how are you?" After a pause, he said, "Yeah, and I'm still ready, don't worry. You know I wouldn't want to make you sad, just like we wouldn't want to let down any of you girls..."

We heard a bit of a female voice that sounded like it had the cute knob turned up to 11, and Aurora and I quickly came closer wondering if we could find out who it belonged to. It didn't take us long to figure it out.

"Oh, no." Aurora managed to say before she dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"Uh-oh, vintage Sunny  _aegyo_?" I asked with a grin.

"You know it!" Aurora replied, before adding, "I can see why she decided to call him instead of texting him!" 

I nodded avidly through my own laughs. Then, managing to find my voice as well, I yelled, "Yo, put that on speaker!"

"Hang on, can I put this on speaker? The team is asking if they can hear it too." Balls asked.

The answer was obviously yes, because after a moment, Balls took the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker phone.

Not two seconds passed before Sunny's voice came over the speaker in her patented  _aegyo_  tone, saying,  _"Yoboseyo, yoboseyo!_  Sunny here, wishing everyone good luck today in their last game!  _C9 Fighting!_ "

"Dude, she's gonna kill us!" Sneaky said, his eyes wide.

Aurora just managed to stop giggling enough to say, "An  _aegyo_  pentakill...Hey, this is Sunny we're talking about here. She's perfectly capable of it!"

"I'll be watching tonight with any members who aren't busy...I'm expecting a victory and a good show! I'll be thinking about you all day!"

By now, we were all either slack-jawed, laughing or doubled over with mirth – or some combination of those, as Balls managed to say, "Oh, Sunny  _noona_...I've been thinking about you a lot too!"

"Okay, stop, stop, stop!" LemonNation yelled, picking up the phone.

"Awww...why, Lemon?" Sunny asked, almost whining (although we knew she was still just trying to wind us up.) "Do you hate me?"

"No, Sunny  _noona_ , it's not that!" LemonNation replied. "It's that if you keep going, they're going to find us either passed out or in puddles because you're so good at this!" His voice was just assertive enough, and he was smiling throughout.

"Oh,  _mianhe_. I'll ease off now..." Sunny said, sounding more normal. "I do want to ask you one thing, though. You've got your notebook ready, right?"

"He's got it in his hand, actually. He double-checked when he found out he was playing today." Balls answered.

"That's great! Okay, I'll hang up so you all can get locked in!" She said.

"Bye! Thanks a lot, Sunny!" We replied, with Balls being the most enthusiastic.

"Oh, God have mercy." I said, laughing as we saw the hang up.

"That was so good, though." Aurora said.

"What was that term you and Carlo used?" Sneaky asked her..  _"Aeg_..."

 _"Aegyo."_  Aurora said. "It's basically OTT cute. Many K-Pop idols can pull it off and are often expected to, but Sunny's is legendary. And that was all on audio – we weren't even seeing her face."

"It's probably a good thing, because I probably wouldn't have been able to take it." LemonNation said. Aurora and I both had that smile that said,  _you have no idea how right you are about that._

"Same." Sneaky said with a grin, visualizing the same thing.

"Okay, guys, we've got our big shots in the arm, now let's put them to good use!" I said, clapping my hands and fist-bumping the others as we got set to go on stage.

* * *

Less than an hour later, the dust had settled and we were celebrating completing a perfect group stage after another win. With the close of Groups A and B, we had booked a quarterfinal against defending champion SK Telecom T1 K, who had finished second in Group A, while Fnatic was set to face Oh My God.

"Hey, good game...We messed up that draft so bad." YellowStar was telling us as we went off. They'd allowed Balls and Lemon to have comfort picks in Rumble and Thresh, while Aurora had filled in as our jungler made an impact on Elise (and relished getting to carry a bit) while I'd turned in a strong performance of my own with something of an on-hit Lux in the mid lane.

"Hey, you still made us work for it." Sneaky said. "You guys should be able to give OMG a run for their money."

"Thanks. SKT should have their hands full with you guys too." Soaz responded, shaking our hands again, as he added, "I don't know what's come over you, but you're all still playing like you've got something to prove – if anything, you've been getting even stronger. If nothing else, we can attest to that since you've beaten us twice and used every player available."

"We've worked hard, but honestly, we've been real lucky too, and here's why. We're constantly reminded of who we want to play for besides ourselves and each other." Aurora said. We all nodded, including Meteos and Hai, who had finished being checked out and who had arrived in time for the last ten minutes of the game and joined us onstage to celebrate.

"Speaking of that..." xPeke said, "I couldn't help but overhear backstage. It looks like you have quite the fan back in Korea. I think I heard her on the TV when we were over there – is she...?"

"Peke, don't you say a word to anyone else before we or she does, or I'll ask for a remake just so I can kick your butt again." Aurora said half-sternly and half-lightheartedly. He got the message, nodding and smiling to indicate he wouldn't tell.

That night, we got packed and prepared to fly back to Korea knowing we had two weeks to prepare for SKT, which was good because we were dealing with not just the defending champions but also more news – and not just the piece of news Jessica had promised to explain to us.

**_Group B Results_ **

**1st**  - Cloud 9 (North America) – 6-0  
**2nd**  - Fnatic (Europe) – 4-2  
**3rd**  - Star Horn Royal Club (China) – 2-4  
**4th**  - AHQ E-Sports Club (Southeast Asia) – 0-6

_Graphic_

**_Quarterfinal Matchups_ **

Quarterfinal 1 (October 3rd) – Oh My God (China) vs. Fnatic (Europe)  
Quarterfinal 2 (October 4th) – Samsung Galaxy White (Korea) vs. Counter Logic Gaming (North America)  
Quarterfinal 3 (October 5th) – Cloud 9 (North America) vs. SK Telecom T1 K (Korea)  
Quarterfinal 4 (October 6th) – Alliance (Europe) vs. Team SoloMid (North America)

_Graphic_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this second chapter! Pleasantly surprised how big it got... Quarterfinals will be included next. Same rules apply – reviews are always welcome, but I do ask for no flaming just because you're not a fan.


	4. Quarterfinals Part 1 – Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes  
> I literally finished the next chapter (now the next two chapters) just before the start of this year's Worlds. Again, I'm pleasantly surprised at how big this one got...I personally had fun adding in some Heesica and some friendship Jeti into these next two chapters as well. Usual rules apply – reviews welcome, but no flaming just because you're not a fan of the pairings, SNSD or Cloud 9. 
> 
> Glossary  
>  _Soju_ – The most popular alcoholic beverage in South Korea, a distilled drink typically made using rice, wheat or barley.

Following the return flight to Seoul, we did our best to shut out a lot of the Korean netizen chatter knowing that we were returning to face a home team. Moreover, it was not just any home team, but the reigning world champions, who only the previous year had taken on and beaten all comers in Los Angeles, compiling a 15-3 overall record on the way to becoming the first Korean team to win the Summoner's Cup and thus earning the admiration of a nation. They hadn't been their usual selves since, but they still had the same team that had won it all – Piglet, Impact, Bengi, PoohManDu and of course Faker, who was still loved, feared and revered as the best mid-laner in the world and the face of competitive  _League_ , especially in Korea.

We did also get the news that Jessica had been held out of Girls' Generation's trip to Guangzhou, citing differences and discussion over creative direction and her future. We were perturbed, but mainly thankful that the nuclear option (as Aurora and I had called it) had not been taken – or so we thought.

In the days between the end of our group stage and the quarterfinal, our preparation consisted mainly of scrims, but we still made time to watch the second week of the group stage in Singapore. We were having fun after watching some good upsets when Aurora, who had been browsing Reddit, gasped and beckoned us over.

We went over and saw what had caused that reaction – and quite a few of us gasped ourselves. Jessica had publicly picked Cloud 9 to beat SK Telecom T1 K, and it had quickly trended on both the  _League of Legends_  and K-Pop subreddits. As we looked up the details and the reactions both from Korean netizens and from back home, Aurora called Jessica.

" _Unnie_ , that's amazing...but what the heck do you think you're doing?" She asked.

"One, being a fan and friend, and two, taking some of the heat off you. I know how fans here can get, remember, so I didn't want you experiencing the worst of it alone." Jessica replied coolly but sincerely.

"Thanks a lot once again, Sica  _unnie_ , but you shouldn't be doing it that publicly. At least not yet – you've got too much to lose." Aurora pleaded.

There was a pause where I could feel the tension thicken. Then Jessica said meaningfully, "Believe me, compared to what I and the rest of us had to deal with over the past few weeks, this is nothing."

There was another moment of silence. Then she asked,

"Is it okay if I come over tonight? I think it's about time I told you what's going on like I promised."

* * *

"I've decided to leave the group."

She had come up, and all seven of us were gathered around and rocked by those words.

Balls and Hai looked grim, while Sneaky, Lemon and Meteos looked at her sympathetically and Aurora and I looked like we'd just been told a relative was dead.

"But..." Aurora said. "You said that the others came to a consensus and told the people upstairs that you shouldn't have to leave! Is it something involving one of them?

"It's not that I hate or even dislike any of the members. I sometimes have disagreements with them, yes, but I'm not leaving because I can't stand someone. There's more that I want to do...sometimes, I wonder if I've found everything I want to do...and I'm not sure if I can while I'm with them. But also...I do know I've unintentionally caused them pain and I feel like me being away at least temporarily would be healthy for them too."

She looked as if she was reaching deep into herself as she said that. We recognized she was at least talking about fashion, possibly more, and nodded at the mention of that. The last sentence struck a chord with us, and I could see a teardrop going down Aurora's face.

"Anyway, that's another reason I've been benched, if you will, from the Guangzhou trip. It'll give the others a chance to prepare for life without me there – at least there all the time." Jessica finished.

We nodded understandingly, but none of us were able to find our voices until Aurora managed to say, "I'm so sorry,  _unnie_." She already sounded like she was fighting back tears, and none of us could blame her.

"Thank you, but don't worry." Jessica said consolingly. "I also found out that there were people who were thinking of just kicking me outright before the Guangzhou trip, but when the other members decided to submit a consensus recommendation against that, they reconsidered. At least this way, it was my choice about whether or not to step down and I'll have a chance to say goodbye."

"'A chance to say goodbye' – what do you mean by that? One more performance?" Balls asked.

"Yes." Jessica answered wistfully. "We're yet to figure out when it will be...but it'll be before you guys leave Korea, because Jack tells me you're staying through the final, win or lose."

"We are." Hai said. Then, it looked like a light bulb went off in his head, and he asked, "Can I make a request? I have an idea..."

Jessica nodded at him. Hai then asked,

"If we beat SKT, could you not schedule it before the finals?"

"Wait a minute. You mean you want them to see if they can..." I started asking.

"Yes." Hai answered. We looked at him and understood what he meant – he wanted to see if it was possible for us to win the Summoner's Cup while their original roster was still intact.

We continued to meet his eyes and nodded almost simultaneously, gathering our resolve.  _Let's do it_ , we conveyed to him.

"I know the idea is a bit silly, honestly. But if we can win this World Championship while you girls are still together..." Hai said.

"No, it's not silly...I'm touched, really." Jessica answered. Then, looking each of us in the eyes in turn, she said, "Hai, Aurora, Carlo, Sneaky, Meteos, Balls, Lemon...please know that even if you don't win this thing, that means so much to me."

She was already starting to break down as she finished. Aurora was the first one over to her, hugging her, fighting back her own tears and saying, "Don't cry, Sica  _unnie_ , we're here for you," and the rest of us were right behind her. Hai quickly and quietly asked Meteos if we could give her something to drink, and Meteos came back a couple of minutes later with a bottle of soju and poured Jessica a glass. She gladly drank it and then drank a second before stopping.

"You know..." She said, "I did tell them they were also right about another thing..."

"What's that?" Meteos asked.

"I am indeed dating someone and hoping to spend a little more time with him." Jessica replied, now with a grin that looked more like herself.

"Oooh! Who's the lucky guy, if you don't mind us asking?" Aurora asked. Then she realized what she had said and quickly added, "I know this is a tough day for you, so only if you feel comfortable, Sica  _unnie_."

"Don't worry, Aurora. Since I'm here, I'll give you the chance to figure it out. I'll tell you a little bit and then I'll allow you and the others to ask away." Jessica replied.

Aurora smiled gratefully and then listened intently along with the rest of us.

"My boyfriend is a very old friend of mine, and we've been secretly dating for the last six months. I wasn't always good to him after he did his military time, but..." Right here, Jessica looked like this had once been a big regret of hers, before she finished, "Thankfully, we reconnected and he hasn't held it against me much anymore, except when he playfully teases me."

Aurora returned her grin and nodded, then asked, "Is he older than you?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Is he also an idol?" I asked this time.

"Yes."

"Is he also signed to SM?" Aurora asked.

"Yes."

"Wait a minute..." Aurora said, thinking hard. Then her eyes and mouth widened as it dawned on her.

"No." She said in disbelief, although her face let us all know it was happy disbelief.

"Yes." I said with a smile, not far behind.

"No." Aurora repeated, turning to me.

"Yes!" I repeated back, my smile growing. I then turned back to Jessica and asked, "Heechul  _hyung_?"

"Oh, s**t, from Super Junior?" Balls asked. I nodded at him before turning back to Jessica.

In answer, Jessica smiled at us, got up and did her version of Heechul's signature finger-to-mouth pose from  _Sorry, Sorry_  that she'd done in covers.

"Oh, yes!" Aurora finally said, clapping her hands and giving Aurora another big hug, this time in congratulations.

"Oh, ho ho.  _Whoo!_  Yo, that's Heesica right there." I said, making her laugh.

"Let's f**king go!" Balls shouted, jumping up and giving her a high-five.

"Yeah." Aurora said. "I tell you what, there's a ton of fans who'll be very happy about that. I know we are."

"Guilty as charged." I said, before turning to the others. "Fun fact – aside from being an idol, the man's also Platinum/Diamond on the Korean server playing bottom lane primarily."

Jessica nodded and smiled affectionately. Then she said, "Bringing it back to your quarterfinal, the other thing is...I made a bet with Heechul  _oppa_." She said, with a further grin that was a bit sheepish. "He's friends with a bunch of the SKT players, so he's obviously picked them after I picked you. The loser has to buy the winner  _and_  the winning team dinner the next day."

"Oh, s**t, it's on now." Sneaky said, standing up.

"Heechul  _hyung_ , you may be awesome and a heartthrob, but  _now you done did it, boi!"_  Meteos said, finishing in something of a Southern accent, making us all smile and laugh.

Sneaky stepped closer and said, "Tell you what, Jessica  _noona_  - if for some f**ked up reason we lose...which we shouldn't...I'll give you the money."

"Thanks, Sneaky." Jessica replied, smiling at him.

"It won't be easy, but...At least we're really in this together now." Aurora said, holding out her hand again.

"To the end, Aurora." Jessica said, grasping it firmly. They shared a sisterly smile.

"Hang on...how about the rest of the group?" Lemon asked. "I know they've been great supporting us, but this is freaking SKT, after all. That's nothing against them – it's just that that's like asking Imagine Dragons to pick against a North American team."

"I can't say for sure." Jessica replied anxiously, before the light came back to her face and voice. "That said, I can categorically say that we'd all be thrilled if you won it all."

At that moment, my iPhone went off with another text alert. I quickly looked, saw it was from Tiffany and opened and read it.

I silently mouthed, "Whoa..." and then said out loud, "Speaking of that..."

I then laid my phone down on a table near the center so that they could see. Then, sheepish because of what was at the end, I turned and walked a few steps away before turning around.

The others read,

_Dear Carlo,_

_I'm still trying to gauge whether the other seven members are picking you or SK Telecom, but don't you worry about me. I'm in! #C9WIN_

_I know you guys will work great with Sica unnie. You guys look after each other – I would want nothing less since I'm still close to her and that's not changing when she steps down._

_–Fany_

_PS: I'd like to see you again before we leave for Guangzhou. I'm hoping for a meeting with the team...and a meeting with you alone._

"Good old Tiff, God bless her..." Jessica said fondly.

"She really is awesome...wait, why the hell is she asking to see you alone?" Hai asked, raising an eyebrow at me and smiling cheekily.

"He did ask if he could see her again when we got back...but he didn't say it had to be alone!" Aurora said. I nodded and smiled at her gratefully.

"That really was considerate of you." Jessica said, turning to me. "It also means that  _she's_  the one who wants to meet alone."

It was here that I managed to find my voice again and ask, "I'm darn sure glad to hear all that...but what could she want with just me?"

Jessica smiled and laid a hand on my shoulder encouragingly before saying, "You need to be the one to find out, Carlo...but even as the Ice Princess, I'm telling you not to be afraid to open yourself up to her. I know she thinks very highly of you. Keep in mind she liked you even before you and Aurora found and returned her wallet at KCON."

Words failed me. I simply nodded slowly but sincerely and mouthed, "I'll be brave. I promise."

Jessica gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and then turned back to us as a group. "Can I ask for a favor?"

"Go right ahead." Hai replied.

After a moment, she asked, "I'd rather not stay at the dorm at a time like this, especially with everyone else leaving for China soon. Is it okay if I stay here for the time being? I have my bags ready outside – they're the ones I had packed for Guangzhou. I've already talked to the front desk regarding compensation and they say they'll allow it so long as you do."

We all looked at each other in surprise, and Sneaky, Meteos and Balls all mouthed, "Whoa..." within moments of each other. It had been one thing to meet Girls' Generation and find them watching us and cheering for us. To have a member staying with us, though, was unquestionably something  _very_  different for so many reasons.

Quickly, though, we all nodded. Hai then said, "We'd be glad to help you there. We just need to figure out where you'll sleep..."

"Take my bed." I offered. "It's next to Aurora's – I think you and she would like that. I'll just sleep on the couch." Both of them smiled appreciatively.

"Hang on, I've got a better idea." Sneaky said. "Jessica, you take my bed and I'll just get a spare cushion and comforter and sleep in the closet."

Every one of us apart from Sneaky and Jessica burst out laughing, with Hai, Meteos, Balls and LemonNation being the loudest.

"Holy s**t, Sneaky, that's dank as hell!" Meteos exclaimed, almost unable to speak.

Jessica was evidently but understandably puzzled, and she asked, "Why? What's funny? I think that's kind of him! I do wonder about why he said the closet, though!"

"Oh, don't get us wrong, it's real kind of him!" Hai said, managing to compose himself enough. "It's just that...Sneaky actually slept in a closet in the very first team house we had when we got into the LCS."

"No way!" Jessica almost squealed, now laughing too. "Did you really...?"

"It's true." Sneaky said, chuckling now too. "It's even on video."

We quickly led her over to his station, and he pulled up the YouTube video of Cloud 9's first-ever  _League of Legends_  team house tour for HyperX back during the 2013 Summer Split (just under a year before Aurora and I joined.) And sure enough, Jessica saw that Sneaky had been sleeping in Lemon and Alex Penn (our old analyst)'s bathroom closet, which was literally big enough just to put the mattress in.

"Oh, my God." Jessica said, laughing again. "That's funny, but that must have been no fun!"

"Don't worry, at least I had the mattress." Sneaky said sheepishly. "And don't worry, I do have a real bed at our current house."


	5. Quarterfinals Part 2 – Vs. SKT: Right Now, It's...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Glossary_  
>  _Nexus_ – In _League of Legends_ , the main structures in each base that spawn minions. A team wins by destroying the opposing Nexus.
> 
>  _Inhibitor_ – In _League of Legends_ , the key structures in each base apart from the Nexus and turrets. Each team gets three (one for each lane.) Destroying an opposing team's inhibitor causes friendly super minions (with increased health and damage) to spawn for a period of time in that lane.
> 
>  _Turret_ – In _League of Legends_ , structures that attack enemy minions that come into their range and will also attack enemy champions if their targeting system is tripped. Also provides vision. Destroying an enemy turret awards bonus Gold and removes the turret's vision. Each team gets 11 turrets (three outer, three inner, three in front of their inhibitors and two turrets to defend the Nexus – these last two must be eliminated before the Nexus becomes targetable.)
> 
>  _Baron Nashor_ – An extremely strong epic monster in _League of Legends_ that regularly needs multiple team members to take down. Slaying it awards bonus Gold and awards all living members of the team Hand of Baron, which grants bonus Health Regen and empowers nearby allied minions to make it easier to destroy enemy turrets.

**_2014_** ** _League of Legends _****_World Championship_ **  
**_Quarterfinals_ **  
**_Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO), Busan, South Korea_ **  
**_October 3rd – 6th_ **

**_Cloud 9 (North America)_**  
Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)  
Jungle - Meteos (Will Hartman, USA)  
Mid - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)  
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)  
Support - Aurora (Carolina Aurora Lea, Canada)  
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)  
Coach/Emergency Sub - LemonNation (Daerek Hart, USA)

 ** _SK Telecom T1 K (Korea)_**  
Top - Impact (Jung Eunyeong, South Korea)  
Jungle - Bengi (Bae Seongung, South Korea)  
Mid - Faker (Lee Sanghyeok, South Korea)  
AD Carry - Piglet (Chae Gwangjin, South Korea)  
Support - PoohManDu (Lee Jeonghyeon, South Korea)  
Substitute - Casper (Kwon Jimin, South Korea)  
Coach - KkOma (Kim Junggyun, South Korea)

For the week or so leading up to our quarterfinal, Jessica basically took on the role of den mother/manager. Among other things, she let us know what we should and shouldn't say to the Korean press and suggested some fresh combinations of the clothes we'd brought, while we let her  watch scrims, get some  _League_  tips and see what we were like  both in a competitive and streaming environment (the latter being  simulated, since we had a stream blackout – for the most part on purpose, and we of course wanted to give no hints that she was basically in our  camp), from Sneaky and Meteos' lowbrow dirty humor to Hai, Balls and Lemon being more quiet and Aurora's and my cleaner but still energetic  act including our K-Pop radio DJ personas. 

Being under the same roof as her allowed us to find out a bunch of things about her, including what her "no-makeup face" looked like in person or how Hai was more comfortable cooking than she was. We did also found out just why she had been the one besides Taeyeon who had been considered to be Girls'  Generation's leader when the group was formed – she wouldn't open up  easily to just anybody, but she strove to do all she could for people  who had earned her trust.

She did still help us get Korean food so we could keep sampling it, but in keeping with the North America vs. Korea theme, she made sure we had at least one American/Western meal a day – something even the "When in Rome..." types like Aurora and I had no objection to. Pizza and burgers were definitely part of that, and we had added fun one afternoon when we had Goobne fried chicken while going over some of Girls' Generation's classic commercials for it.

We also allocated one night for meeting up with Girls' Generation again – first, each of us would meet one or more Soshis who wanted to see us individually or in pairs, and then we'd all meet up.

"Would you like to come with me after we finish today?" Jessica asked Aurora as we were arranging the meetings. "I've got something for you  today since I know you're an avid dancer."

This was true – one of the things Aurora liked to do in queue while  she was streaming and had K-Pop playing was follow along to the dances with her upper body (while still seated) - although she had shown she could do the full dances when her viewers requested it – and she had  confirmed that dance was one of her big interests apart from  _League of Legends_.

"Of course!" Aurora replied. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I know you wanted to get critiqued on your dancing and also  make sure you stayed active to keep your stress low." Jessica said, her  smile growing. "So I figured I'd work a bit too and get some help for  both of us – as I have on multiple occasions – from our resident  expert."

"Oh, Hyoyeon?" Aurora asked. When Jessica nodded, she cheered, "Yay!  Thanks a lot! I don't expect her to go easy on me, but I know I'll be better for it."

Meanwhile, as we split for the moment, Sneaky and Meteos went to see Yoona, Sooyoung and Seohyun, Balls and Lemon went to meet Sunny and  Yuri, I went to meet Tiffany again and Hai went to see Taeyeon as each of the Soshis had requested.

* * *

"I know this is cliché, but it really is about feeling the music and  letting it take you over, isn't it?" Aurora asked, after they'd had some  fun with Red Velvet's  _Happiness_  and freestyled to Big Bang's  _Last Farewell_  in a room at a studio.

"Oh, yes." Hyoyeon replied. "Even more so when you're tired. And then  from there, I find that it helps if you can add something of yourself in there – your energy, your attitude and so on – then that helps too."

She then said, "You're definitely good – I can tell you practice a lot."

"Oh, thanks, Hyoyeon  _unnie_." Aurora replied, going red but  smiled. "That means a lot coming from you. Although you mentioned fatigue – I think that's where I need to improve the most, in my  fitness. I do look after my weight, but I don't always train for  endurance. Balls is the best of us in that department."

"It's okay – just be thankful you don't have to deal with my condition." Jessica said, making Hyoyeon nod since they knew she was  talking about her anemia. "Believe me, there's nothing worse than  wanting to practice something and not being able to as much as I would  like."

"Oh, I know Hai would agree with that because he's got the wrist problems." Aurora said.

"Here's something I sometimes do. Instead of constantly trying to  work on one song at a time, try a medley, or if you feel adventurous, try a random play segment where you don't know what's coming." Hyoyeon  told her.

"Oh, that sounds fun! I'll keep that in mind." Aurora replied. "Note to self: If I ever teach or coach   _League of Legends_  with you, I'm going to take a page out of that book, heck, maybe even for myself, and suggest you mix in an ARAM or two."

Jessica and Hyoyeon both laughed.

When we met up later that night just to relax and shoot the breeze,  Tiffany revealed that she'd been teaching me a dance too while Taeyeon  revealed that she'd also been teaching Hai during our individual  outings. We didn't share what we'd worked on then, but everyone was  going to find out soon enough.

* * *

At about the same time as Girls' Generation went out to Guangzhou, we packed bags and went out to Busan, opting for the high-speed train down there, which was about 2 and a half hours, or the same time as it had  taken for us to fly from Seoul to Taipei for our group stage games.

Among the many things it had hosted beforehand, the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO for short) had also hosted the 2011 World  Cyber Games, and the  _League_  tournament there had actually been  the last international tournament that a North American team had won  with Korean teams in the field before we had won All-Stars. Back then,  the winner had been Chicks Dig ELO playing for the US, composed of TSM's Reginald and Xpecial, CLG's Chauster and Saintvicious and then Dyrus  (at the time with Epik Gamer).

We had two thrilling but ultimately harrowing nights before it was  our turn as Western teams lost hard-fought five-game series against  Eastern ones. First, Fnatic fell to Oh My God after OMG barely won a  base race in Game 5, and then Counter Logic Gaming fell just short  against Samsung White after the bottom lane duos (Imp and Mata for SSW,  Doublelift and Aphromoo for CLG) had gone back and forth all series.

As we entered the venue on match day and saw the crowd, I felt like  we were going behind enemy lines for the first time since we'd played Fnatic at All-Stars in Paris. But the fact that we had continued to  prepare well and had support from home, not to mention the fact that  Jessica was traveling with us basically as one of us and hand picked us  to win, gave us courage. In addition, Tiffany publicly picked Cloud 9 the night beforehand – as she later told us, it was both because she  believed in us and because she didn't want Jessica to suffer any vitriol  by herself.

The series did not start out well, with Faker being vintage Faker and  taking Game 1. However, we managed to collect ourselves and win Game 2  in order to get right back on even footing before some superior teamfighting allowed us to take Game 3, putting us on match point.

Jessica was watching from the crowd wearing a green coat over her new C9 team shirt, with the coat's hood up to cover her face. She was enjoying listening to the Riot broadcast to hear what they were saying  about us. She looked down at her phone to see us backstage in high  spirits, with Hai talking to us animatedly.

* * *

"You know all that tension we talked about?" He was saying. "We're putting it into them."

"Yeah – Lemon and I were watching the player cams and they look like  they're a little messed up. I think they need to win the early game or  else they're vulnerable to tilting." Balls said.

"I think they're going to put more emphasis on making proactive plays to  right themselves and get their momentum back. If we can stay one step ahead of them and punish them for their aggression, we're into the  semifinals." LemonNation said.

"Good God, we really do sound like we're the Ice Princess's team." I  said, with a nervous but sincere laugh. I was having fun – it was just  surprising to feel our own menace.

"Well, it's certainly not a bad thing to have her so-called coldness  right here." Hai replied. "But more importantly, this is what they did  to other Western teams for way too long. It's payback time."

"Heck yeah." Lemon said. Then, looking in his notebook, he said, "No  prizes for guessing the kind of comp we're going to aim for – but I'm  guessing you guys don't mind one bit, right?"

"Uh-uh." Aurora replied with a grin.

* * *

We picked Zed for Hai, Lee Sin for Meteos, Leona for me (an  unconventional pick that I had become known for), Lucian for Sneaky and  Morgana for Aurora, while banning out Faker's famous LeBlanc and putting  him on Orianna. At the start of the game, both we and SKT decided to  group and invade in order to steal parts of each other's jungle and put down deep wards.

"Oh, they've got the same idea." Aurora said as we got into a larger  bush she saw SKT standing in another one within range of a ward that one  of us had put down.

"Yeah, we might be able to get something if we play this right." Hai  said. "Throw Binding, let's see if we get anybody. Carlo's on point -  don't go in unless we can lock up somebody and kill him."

"Got it." We said.

"Here goes..." Aurora said, lining up her skillshot as she saw them start to move.

We saw her fire it off and saw it connect - and we all jumped a bit when we realized who it was.

"Oh, it's Piglet!" Aurora yelled.

"We can take it. Go, go, go, go, go!" Hai said briskly.

 **_Leigh "Deman" Smith (EU LCS):_ ** _Binding  lands onto Piglet! The early chain CC comes in and Hai gets First Blood! The fight continues with Hai continuing to get Shurikens across  the team and Faker trying to trade back, but nobody else goes down. But Cloud 9 will take that any day of the week!_

 **_Joe Miller (EU LCS):_ ** _Absolutely.  Faker may be better mechanically, but he will take time to catch  up...Hai recalls and comes back with the extra Longsword and potions._

It did indeed give Hai a cushion that he took full advantage of as he  was consistently able to outtrade Faker early, often shoving him under  his own tower and chunking that tower to about half of its HP.

"Bengi looks like he's going mid - I think he wants to get Faker  going. I'll come in to match him - if it's a 2v2, that works for us."  Meteos said a few minutes later.

"I'll keep eyes down there for a TP counter-gank." I said. "Just got  my Level 6 and think I can shove out Impact so that he doesn't see me  going."

"Sounds great. Save your ulti for then if you can, all right?" Hai asked.

"That's what I figured. Would be awesome if we could get both Faker and Bengi." I replied.

 **_Deman:_ ** _Bengi is here, but Hai gets away and now here comes the counter-engage as Meteos also comes in. Carlo also teleports in off to the side – Solar Flare goes off and lands on Bengi and Faker! They get on towards Faker and Meteos gets him down! Bengi's trying to run away, but Carlo locks him up and gets the kill! Beautiful play by Hai, Meteos and Carlo right  there and Cloud 9 are off to a 3-0 start!_

 **_Joe:_ ** _They're  going for this middle turret as well and they're going to get it! Hai gets the last hit on it and that's more money in his pocket...that's an  early 3,000 Gold lead for Cloud 9 and the holders are in trouble early!_

 **_Sam "Kobe" Hartman-Kenzler (NA LCS):_ ** _It's  not just the fact that it's 3,000 Gold up at this stage. It's the fact that that outer middle turret has been taken, and that frees up Hai to roam early on that Zed because SKT does not have too much vision to spot him moving between the lanes. So if Cloud 9 plays this right, this mid  lane control could snowball into other lanes quickly._

Jessica had been watching with quiet elation, for once glad to hear  groans from the crowd as the SKT fans continued to get antsier. When she saw Meteos quickly recall and grab Mobility Boots and a Sightstone while I purchased Distortion Lucidity Boots, she quietly but visibly  smiled, silently cheering. 

It was our version of the classic vision control strat that we had worked on a lot over the previous months with Aurora and Meteos both going for early Sightstones so they could get  vision all over the place. Meanwhile, since I liked to go with Distortion Lucidity Boots, which also further reduced cooldown on both my Flash and my Teleport, then we could not only keep eyes on the enemy but also get more advantageous skirmishes and fights, including frequent Teleport flanks like I'd done with the mid-lane counter-gank. This worked because we had extra gold available to Meteos, Aurora and me, which meant we afford to  spend on map presence instead of combat stats.

And she had seen in person while we were scrimming that we were very hard to beat when we got to do it as early as we did.

 **_Deman:_ ** _ManDu is trying to clear on his own, but Cloud 9 are on the move and nobody from SK Telecom is close enough to him. Aurora gets into position and Hai's there as well! Another Dark Binding lands and Hai doesn't even need the Death Mark to get another kill. That ward stays alive as well and now Piglet's getting shoved in!_

 **_Kobe:_ ** _Cloud 9 making the most of the vision advantage that they have created with  that early lead and it is growing steadily. Sneaky's now onto the turret and Piglet's trying to recall, but he's not going to get a chance to!_

 **_Joe:_ ** _Another pickup! No fear whatsoever from Cloud 9 as Hai will just dive in and pop Piglet again! It's a 3/0/2 Zed so far, and it's not Faker, but Hai, who's across from Faker!_

 **_Kobe:_ ** _Yeah, if you turn off the name tags and show that scoreboard, you're  much more likely to think that that Zed is Faker instead of his opponent – especially an opponent who has struggled with injuries. But those wrists look like they're not bothering Hai one bit. And credit has to go  to, as we discussed, the fact that C9 made sure to invest their extra  early gold into vision and global presence. They're also going to get  that turret and then possibly turn for Dragon, so make it a 5,000 Gold lead, possibly pushing 6,000 soon._

"I'm getting Blade of the Ruined King after this – if someone's out  by himself, I'm killing him." Hai said firmly as we did indeed take the first Dragon of the game without a fight.

"Even if it's Faker?" Sneaky asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Okay, nearly in that case." Hai replied. "But I'm almost at the point where I wouldn't give a s**t."

"What's that point – you finish Ghostblade before he gets two items?" Aurora asked.

"Pretty much." Hai said.

It was hard work keeping up our vision control, which included not  just Meteos and Aurora but all of us clearing enemy wards (luckily, I liked to do so anyway), but it continued to pay dividends. With 20 minutes gone and no further kills but with some extra turrets and  dragons taken (and none conceded), we had a 4v4 in the middle lane while Impact and I had a 1v1 in the bottom lane. Luckily, I was able to outduel him  and take him out – it was more of a wearing-down than anything.

"Nice, Carlo!" Hai shouted. "Pink ward in their blue side jungle hasn't been spotted - you can use that."

"Got it. Coming in hot!" I called.

"That's what I'm talking about. All right, Piglet, Piglet!" Hai called.

 **_Deman:_ ** _Meanwhile, in the bottom lane, Carlo takes down Impact as the pressure finally tells there! He used his ultimate there, but he's still got Teleport and  uses it quickly._

 **_Joe:_ ** _Cloud 9 sees him coming in, but SKT doesn't! Cloud 9 starts the fight – there goes Meteos, who gets a great kick to send Piglet into the front!  Hai's onto Faker again with the Death Mark and Aurora also throws out  the Soul Shackles as Carlo arrives! Bengi manages to get away, but Cloud  9 clean house and it's a 4-0!_

 **_Kobe:_ ** _Unbelievable play out of Cloud 9, not giving SKT any window back into  this game whatsoever! They've also taken out that inner middle turret, turned and started up Baron...this might be them slamming the door and  locking it!_

 **_Deman:_ ** _Bengi is trying desperately to get in. He has to try to pull off a  heroic steal here – but another Binding lands from Aurora over the wall  and Hai just jumps over the back of the pit and cuts him down. Baron is secured and it's surely just a matter of time before Cloud 9 finish this._

 **_Joe:_ ** _I tell you what, looking at the SKT player cams, they're just reeling...they know they're over 10,000 Gold down in a game they have to win or else their run at a second straight world title is over - and  now they're up against a full team with Baron buff._

 **_Deman:_ ** _Absolutely. And it is always exciting to see a Western team do this  well against a Korean team, especially since we've never seen it to this  level before, but you can't help but feel for SK Telecom because you  get the feeling that this has been painful._

With our lead and Hand of Baron, we had no trouble knocking out  the middle inhibitor turret and inhibitor before turning for the bottom  one.

"This is for Jessica!" Meteos yelled as we started on the bottom inhibitor turret, making us all cheer heartily.

"Yeah!" Hai shouted, looking over at Meteos before he turned back to his monitor. "We love you, Jess!"

"Thanks for believing in us, Jess!" Sneaky said. "Heechul, you better be ready to pay up!"

"Oh, yeah!" Aurora said in response, before calling, " _Saranghaeyo_ , Sica  _unnie_!"

" _Saranghaeyo_ , Sica  _noona_!" I yelled, before saying, "Okay, everyone, here we go!"

 **_Joe:_ ** _The turret goes down and Cloud 9 rush forward! SKT are choosing to make their last stand here, but the fight is already going Cloud 9's way!_

 **_Kobe:_ ** _They've got Piglet already! They're going to do it!_

 **_Deman:_ ** _Shockwave  only hits Carlo and Sneaky takes out Faker! Aurora even gets a kill on  ManDu and it's absolute carnage in the SKT base! But Cloud 9 stand  victorious, all of them! They have dethroned SK Telecom and booked their  place in the semifinals...with a perfect game!_

We definitely hadn't gone in hoping to win with a literal perfect game (no kills, towers, Dragons or Barons conceded), but as the game  progressed, we all quietly challenged ourselves to do so, knowing that  while we didn't have to perfect them, it would be an invaluable statement if we could. To actually pull it off was, needless to say, a huge adrenaline rush for all of us.

As the red SKT Nexus exploded and we jumped up to celebrate, Jessica  was on her feet, lightly pumping her fists and beaming. She then nodded  appreciatively when she saw our opponents and how downcast they were – all five were still seated, either frozen or slumped over, clearly  devastated – and how we reacted. We looked from them to their fans in  the crowd, many of whom were in tears, and then looked at each other. We  then had the same collective thought - while we had been a legitimate  threat to win, no one had expected us to basically rip out their  collective heart. Quickly, we knew we had one more job to do.

Hai and Aurora were the first two to go over to SKT, and they went to  Faker and Piglet (who was the most openly distraught, unable to contain  his tears) respectively and encouraged them to stand. The rest of us  quickly followed suit – I went to Impact, while Meteos went to Bengi and  Sneaky went to PoohManDu. It took a minute, but they gathered  themselves enough for us to bring them front and center.

We raised our opponents' hands to the crowd, and they managed smiles  and bowed before they graciously returned the gesture and raised ours.  As we took a bow ourselves, the crowd began to cheer us, and Jessica was  among the first to start up our team chant:

_"Cloud 9! Cloud 9! Cloud 9!"_

* * *

Once we got backstage after we'd collected our gear and done our  interviews, we found Jessica running towards us with open arms with her  jacket temporarily thrown off to reveal her C9 team shirt. We all  cheered and shared another group hug with her at the center.

"MVP! MVP!" Hai was chanting, now also raising Jessica's arm like he had raised Faker's.

"Thanks so much for the past week. That was for you, ma'am." Meteos said, high-fiving her.

"Oh, you're more than welcome. Thank you all for the last week too!" Jessica replied.

"Hey, let it be said: NA Jessica > KR Jessica." Sneaky said with a big grin.

We all shared a laugh as LemonNation said, "I guarantee you someone typed that in Twitch chat as that last game was going on."

Before we could say anything else, there was a joyful shout. "Jess!  _Jess!_ "

"Jesus, that's Tiffany  _noona_!" Meteos said, his smile growing even bigger.

He was right. Tiffany was coming around a corner and also removing  her coat, which she put next to Jessica's, to reveal that she too was  wearing a Cloud 9 shirt.

"Oh, my God, Tiff!" Jessica said, seeing her and opening her arms.  They shared a big hug as we all smiled and cheered before she gave the  rest of us big hugs as well – and I went red but was glad that she saved  me for last.

"Holy crap, Fany  _noona_ , you were here the whole time?" I asked, stunned like the rest of us.

"Second game onwards." She replied.

"That's good – you wouldn't have been happy with us one bit in Game 1." Aurora said.

"Don't worry about that." Tiffany assured us. Then she looked at all  of the players and said, "I'm so proud of all of you. You did it!"

"The players would want to correct us on that, Tiff... _We_  did it." Jessica said. "There's a reason for that..."

"What is it?" Tiffany asked, intrigued.

"This team wants to win it for the group now too." Jessica replied, glowing.

Tiffany's eyes grew wide as she turned to the rest of us. She looked back at Jessica and asked, "Really?"

Jessica's smile only grew as she replied, "I kid you not...I'd barely  told Cloud 9 that I was leaving when Hai asked whether we could save  scheduling our last performance together until after the final if they won today."

"Oh my...Hai, you didn't!" Tiffany exclaimed, shocked as she turned to him.

"I did." Hai said. "Admittedly, when it came out of my mouth, I knew I  sounded a little crazy, but then I looked at everyone else and I knew I  wasn't."

"I'd like to think today was proof of that." I said with a grin.

"Are you kidding me?" Tiffany replied. "You haven't had to prove to  me or Jess since All-Stars that you could win with people counting on  you to do it...but yeah, I'd say beating the defending champions and  finishing with a perfect game is absolute proof if anybody else needed  it!"

She gave me a brief sideways hug as I smiled gratefully.

Jessica noticed and gave us a smile before she told the team at  large, "The fact that you choose to put that pressure on yourselves and  play for us too in addition to all the people you have rooting for you  back home...That's a very idol thing to do, you know?"

"No, I didn't think of it that way..." Hai said, and the rest of us except Tiffany and Jessica shook our heads and indicated that that was news to us too. "But that makes sense. Thanks." He said, and we all nodded.

"Anytime!" Jessica said. Then she added, "Whatever the rest of us  might have been wishing for or feeling going into this series, Fany and I at the least know one thing now."

"What's that?" Aurora asked.

Tiffany motioned for us to huddle up and we quickly did so. When we  did, she and Jessica looked at each other, nodded and counted,  _"Hana, dul, set..."_

Then they turned to us and said brightly, " _Jigemun, C9 Shi Dae!_  Right Now, It's Cloud 9 Generation!"

The message they sent by modifying their trademark greeting to  include us hit us instantly like a cannonball: Because of what we had done,  including taking in one of theirs and resolving to win the World Championship for them while their original roster was intact, they  considered us to be part of them.

"Yooo!" Hai exclaimed, putting his hands to his head.

"No way!" Aurora yelled, although she made a beeline straight for Jessica and Tiffany and threw her arms around them.

"Holy crap...I'm gonna channel Deman here.  _'I do not believe it!'"_ I shouted.

"Are you serious?" Balls asked in disbelief.

"Wow...that's real cool. Thanks!" LemonNation said, clapping Tiffany and Jessica on the back.

"Oh-ho...yo, we K-Pop now!" Meteos said with a grin.

"I don't know about that, but I'll take being a  _League_  idol for sure." Sneaky said, also smiling.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." Tiffany said briskly. "I think  you won that hostile crowd, but I still don't know if it's a good idea  for any of us to be out in the open too long tonight."

We all nodded. Aurora and I allowed ourselves the liberty, though, of putting on  _Run Devil Run_  on our phones as we put our headphones back on, which made everyone grin as we donned our hoodies and jackets.

We simply ordered some food, both Korean and Western, and brought it  back to our hotel and up to Hai's room, where he had his laptop hooked  to the TV so the nine of us could watch the VODs on a large screen. It  gave us a chance to hear what they'd been saying on the Riot cast and  gave Tiffany and Jessica the chance to ask us how we'd felt at certain moments or why we'd made certain decisions. It made for the most fun  replay reviews we'd ever had to that point.

* * *

The following day, Heechul treated us to dinner after we watched Team SoloMid upset Alliance to set up an all-North American showdown in the  second semifinal (and with the bet out of the way, Aurora and I were  especially thrilled to meet him). As we arrived back at Fraser Place,  Jessica had packed her things and thanked us wholeheartedly as she  prepared to head back to the dorm. When we got back up to our base, we  took time to read her official announcement of stepping down from Girls' Generation. It brought our emotions back to the surface, but it was the  end that left us especially slack-jawed:

 _I want to thank my fellow members and also my family – my parents, Krystal and Heechul oppa – for helping me through this difficult time. I also want to thank a new group of friends – the players and staff of Cloud 9_ _ League of Legends _ _. I was already a fan of theirs before the World Championships started, but what they did for me personally this past week has made me a fan for life._

Also included was the announcement that their last performance together would be on October 19th at a time and place to be determined.

"October 19th...that's the day of the final." Meteos said. "You don't think..."

"It would be awesome if they performed  _at_  the final, but I can't see them wanting to unseat Imagine Dragons – you know what I'm saying?" Aurora asked in response.

"Yeah." I said. "Either way, I think we better stay focused and get ready, because TSM's going to leave nothing in the tank."

We all nodded and then started our replay work.

 ** _Quarterfinal Results_** _\- Venue: Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO)_  
Quarterfinal 1 (October 3rd) - Oh My God (China) 3-2 Fnatic (Europe)  
Quarterfinal 2 (October 4th) - Samsung Galaxy White (Korea) 3-2 Counter Logic Gaming (North America)  
Quarterfinal 3 (October 5th) - Cloud 9 (North America) 3-1 SK Telecom T1 K (Korea)  
Quarterfinal 4 (October 6th) - Alliance (Europe) 2-3 Team SoloMid (North America)

 ** _Semifinal Matchups_** _\- Venue: Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul_  
Semifinal 1 (October 11th) - Oh My God (China) vs. Samsung Galaxy White (Korea)  
Semifinal 2 (October 12th) - Cloud 9 (North America) vs. Team SoloMid (North America)

_Graphic_


	6. Semifinals Part 1 – Tutorials and Tandems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot happened in between finishing this chapter (now the next two chapters) and the last two – I was alternately psyched for Tiffany's return, a bit bummed over CLG as an NA fan but psyched for Cloud 9 and Team SoloMid as well as the wildcards. We've also got the TSM spring roster in this story as opposed to the one they actually sent to Worlds in 2014 because that specific quintet, one of their Baylife lineups, was one of my favorites outside of Cloud 9 (nothing against Lustboy or Amazing.) Last but not least, I want to give a shout-out to Helloooo_Im_Z on Twitch, who befriended me over C9 League and K-Pop (especially via Sneaky's stream) and who helped me figure out how Tiffany and Jessica might answer a question in an interview you'll see later.  
> Usual rules apply – reviews welcome, but please, no flaming because you're not a fan.
> 
>  _Glossary_  
>  _Last hitting_ – In multiple MOBAs including _League of Legends_ , bonus Gold is awarded when a player lands the killing blow on a minion. In League, successful last hits on minions or neutral monsters are classified as _Creep Score (CS)_ and are often a measure on how opposing players compare in terms of Gold and Experience.
> 
>  _CC_ – Short for Crowd Control, this is a MOBA term for any debuff applied to enemies, including stuns and slows. It is a common tactic to coordinate chaining of CC effects to lock up one or more enemies.
> 
>  _Ahri_ – A champion in _League of Legends_. A mobile ranged mage and assassin, she was released to celebrate the launch of _League_ 's Korean server and is based on the gumiho – a 9-tailed fox in Korean myth who can change into a beautiful woman easily able to charm men (similar to the Japanese kitsune.) Her Classic (default) skin takes her dance emote from Girls' Generation's _Run Devil Run_ , while her Popstar skin takes her dance emote from _Genie_ and also has her outfit inspired by a naval uniform that the group wears in the music video.

As the quarterfinals finished and attention started turning to the semifinals, we were pleasantly surprised to see that fans were still buzzing about what we had accomplished. Never before had a North American team beaten a Korean one in a Worlds playoff, and now we'd done it against the defending champions on Korean soil and finished with a perfect game. Not only that, but we'd managed to secure two members of the nation's girl group as fans (albeit two who were originally from our region), who'd dared to pick us in the quarterfinals and been proved right.

As we continued our semifinal preparation, we couldn't help but try to gauge the level of our support in Korea relative to the remaining teams (and Girls' Generation helped by sharing what they knew from talking to others – for example, Sunny was getting calls about Worlds on  _Sunny FM Date_.) What we found was another pleasant surprise: as Hai said, any Korean fans who weren't cheering for Samsung White first tended to be cheering for us.

An interesting situation came up as the weekend drew near after Taeyeon sent Hai another text:

_Dear Hai,_

_If the nine of us are going to support you seriously, I think we had better know just what we're watching so we can properly appreciate what you do. Is it okay if you give those of us who aren't too familiar with League of Legends a tutorial as only you can? I'm open to suggestions as to where. 4:00 PM on Thursday should work well since none of us has a schedule for that afternoon._

_-Tae_

We took up the teaching/coaching challenge with gusto and all signed off on Hai's response. We then started to make sure our Fraser Place base was presentable, because the response read,

_Dear Tae noona,_

_Absolutely! We'd love to. Our base at Fraser Place should work just fine so we're not disturbed or  eavesdropped on. The only things you should need are headsets._

_-Hai_

* * *

All nine Soshis arrived on Thursday afternoon at least five minutes beforehand. When asking each of them about their gaming experience and how much they watched or knew  _League_ , we found that aside from Jessica and Tiffany having watched us in the NA LCS and then in person in our Worlds quarterfinal (to say nothing of Jessica spending the week leading up to that quarterfinal with us, including watching us scrim), Sunny had played a bit and Taeyeon had some well-documented experience in E-Sport games, albeit mostly in  _StarCraft_  (which I was also a fan of.) Sunny thus gave us a hand with helping explain the basics before we took charge on some of the finer points such as vision.

"I know we all agree, though – there's no learning like hands-on learning." Hai said. "But we're not going to put you into 5v5s or even 1v1s just yet – we'll make this a challenge for us too. Let's do 2v2s but with four players each." Hai said.

"How are we going to do that?" LemonNation asked.

"Two players per champion – one handles the keyboard and the other handles the mouse. I've heard of some players doing it – they call it tandem mode." Hai responded.

Not even any of the players had done it before, so we were all curious to see how we would handle that challenge. We quickly agreed that there would be at most one pro per pair on each champion (given that there were nine Soshis and seven C9 players, we couldn't go one-for-one across the board.) Once we got everything sorted out, we decided it would be Tiffany, Jessica, Aurora and me first up against Yoona, Sooyoung, Meteos and Sneaky, followed by Taeyeon, Seohyun, Hyoyeon and Hai against Sunny, Yuri, Balls and LemonNation.

As we split into our quartets to quickly discuss picks and strategy, I noticed that all of us quickly decided that wherever possible, the C9 player in the duo should be the one on the mouse, because that person by himself or herself could handle targeting (which would include last hitting for farming and lining up skillshots) and movement. We also used the 2v2 rules that had been established at All-Star Shanghai the previous year – Howling Abyss, with the winner being the first to two kills, first to 100 combined CS or the first to destroy an enemy turret. The only difference was that we had no bans (so blind pick as opposed to blind draft) since some of the Soshis were still very new.

"Wonder if we should just set the tone and pick Ahri and Syndra." Aurora said with a grin as the four of us went off by ourselves, having agreed on a bit of time to discuss and prepare before we got underway.

"That would be good! You know, in the past week, Tiff and I have had people asking if we've started to play and have definitely suggested Syndra and especially Ahri because they've got our dances." Jessica said. "But honestly, I'd rather pick Ashe in this case. One, it'll give us an AD champion with some CC who can easily get kills, and two, I am the Ice Princess, after all."

We all smiled and laughed, and Aurora said, "'AD' and 'CC' - you really have been spending too much time around us, Sica  _unnie_. But I do like that. So, Carlo, who do you and Fany  _unnie_  take?"

"I've got a good feeling about Ahri." Tiffany answered.

"Yeah, while both could work, I definitely am more comfortable personally with Ahri than with Syndra. One more thing, Fany  _noona_  - Classic or Popstar? Or, should I say,  _Run Devil Run_  or  _Genie_?"

"Classic today." Tiffany replied. "I'm in something of a  _Run Devil Run_  mood."

We smiled again at that and then temporarily split into our tandems so Jessica and Tiffany could ask us individual questions.

"Okay. Could you give me one tip or bit of feedback on each of the abilities? We'll start with Orb of Deception." Tiffany asked, sitting down and putting her hands in ready positions on the keyboard and tapping the Q key with her little finger.

"Sure!" I said, as I also took a seat and got ready on the mouse. "It's good if you can also connect with it on the way back because it deals true damage on the return, meaning it ignores Magic Resistance."

"Got it. How about Fox Fire?" She asked, now tapping the W key with her ring finger.

"Save it for last hitting and when we're up close." I replied.

"Okay. Now, Charm...this is obviously the one we want to hit if we can, right?" She asked, now tapping E with her middle finger.

"Oh, absolutely. Hitting that makes it so much easier to go aggressive and also can knock an enemy champion out of a fight." I agreed

"And finally, the ultimate." She finished, now tapping R with her index finger.

"Don't use the last Spirit Rush dash offensively unless you're confident you can help secure a kill with it or unless you've got another escape mechanism like Flash or Hourglass." I answered.

She nodded and smiled. "Thanks! Let's lock in and get them, shall we?"

"You bet." I responded. "Let's get on the same chat as Jessica and Aurora..."

We routinely used Skype for our voice communications while streaming, so we plugged both headsets for each tandem into a Y-adapter and connected it to the PC. Once we had it working, Aurora said, "We need to watch each other – if we land Enchanted Crystal Arrow or Charm, try following up with the other just before that effect expires."

"Oh, the CC chain technique you work on regularly?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah, that." Aurora replied.

As we loaded in, we saw that Yoona and Sneaky were playing as Varus while Sooyoung and Meteos were playing as Karma. This meant we had to deal with a lot of poke between Piercing Arrow and Inner Flame, but luckily, they were grouped up right as both of us hit Level 6 and unlocked ultimates. Jessica and Aurora didn't hesitate, firing the Ashe ultimate and catching both of our opponents simultaneously.

"Nice! Okay, let's line up the Charm..." Tiffany said, poising her middle finger over the E key.

"Yeah, let's get Varus." I said. "Now."

Tiffany hit E to fire the Charm, and it landed to keep Varus unable to deal damage.

"Nice!" Jessica and Aurora yelled, while Aurora added, "Focus him down!"

"Got 'em!" I yelled, as Tiffany let fly.

It thankfully didn't take long for us to burst down Varus. Aurora then called, "Nice one! Watch out, Karma's gonna use Inspire and try to get away!"

"We've got one Spirit Rush left, so let them try." Tiffany responded with a grin.

I quickly nodded and lined up the mouse cursor towards Karma. Tiffany triggered the last one before cooldown, forcing Meteos and Sooyoung to use their Flash to get a little space. It wasn't enough, though, as we landed the Charm, and Jessica and Aurora were able to catch up and add   more damage to make even more certain that we secured the match-winning second kill.

"Yes!" Tiffany cheered, jumping out of her seat as we all high-fived each other.

"Whoo!" Aurora shouted.

We then went over to our opponents, who met us halfway.

"Good game." Sneaky said, shaking our hand. "Holy s**t, my butthole."

"Oh, because you clenched so much after they jumped on us?" Yoona asked, shaking our hands and laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, we'll leave it at that tonight." Sneaky said, chuckling.

"Holy s**t, Jessica  _noona_ 's been learning too much from being around us and Tiffany  _noona_  looks like she's been putting in time too." Meteos said. "That CC chain was brutal."

"Hey, look at it this way. They had four NA players and we only had two." Sooyoung said with a smile.

We all burst out laughing. Balls managed to say, "Oh, man...is this what it's come to? Sooyoung  _noona_  also saying NA > KR?"

"Well, honestly, that is yet to be seen...but that Jeti Caroura synergy was too strong." Sooyoung replied.

"That sounds like a concept vehicle or something." I said with a grin as we stepped away and the other eight stepped in.

Soon, we could also see that Taeyeon and Hai had picked Lux and Hyoyeon and Seohyun had picked Leona, while Sunny and Balls had taken Miss Fortune and Yuri and LemonNation had taken Nautilus.

"Oh, that's going to be interesting." Aurora said. "Lemon's been experimenting with support Nautilus and has worked with me a bit on that."

"Add in the fact that Hai's got one less pro player to work with and this could be a good one." Meteos said.

We then heard Hai saying, "Is it okay if I waive the honorifics for this? If I have to say 'Tae  _noona_ ', 'Seo  _noona_ ' and 'Hyo  _noona_ ', I'm not going to be able to get the calls out fast enough."

"Don't worry, we understand." Seohyun replied.

"Ooh." Sooyoung said, rubbing her hands. "So this is the Hai shotcalling everyone talks so much about!"

As opposed to the first match, the match that ensued was more drawn out. One thing that we noticed, though, was that as expected, there was a difference in how each side was on the comms – which is nothing against either, just more of a contrast in styles than anything.

"If they stand behind each other, that's when we can make our move." Lemon said. "Especially now that we've got Dredge Line, so be ready to throw it out if you see them line up, okay, Yuri?

"Got it." Yuri replied, wiggling her index finger in anticipation over the R button.

"Okay, we'll keep the Bullet Time ready until then." Balls said.

"Just need to wait until they line up...thing is they're not giving too many chances." Sunny said, concentrating.

Meanwhile, Hai's shotcalling set the tone and meant the other team was talking a lot more to respond.

"Nice job on the combos, Taengoo – just watch that mana." Hai was saying.

"Yeah, don't worry, it made me figure that out fast, Hai. I'm making sure to save enough for the ulti in case Seo and Hyo can lock someone up." Taeyeon responded.

"Nice." Hai said. "Hey, Hyo, can you and Seo E onto MF? It can't be bodyblocked by someone standing in front."

"We'll do our best." Seohyun replied. "Hey, Hyo, you heard the man – if you can line up Zenith Blade, I'll go and fire it and then focus on keeping Miss Fortune locked up. Hai and Tae are keeping Final Spark in their back pocket, so if we can get Sunny and Balls, we can push even if we can't win it immediately like Sica, Fany, Aurora and Carlo did."

"Okay." Hyoyeon said.

"Wait until Tae and I have Q back up." Hai said. "I'll count you in. 3, 2, 1, now!"

In anticipation, Hyoyeon, who was on the mouse, had already lined up Zenith Blade onto Miss Fortune, and Seohyun, who was on the keyboard, hit E and successfully landed it.

"Got 'em!" Seohyun yelled.

"Nice! Kill Miss Fortune!" Hai shouted.

"Just keep those sights on them, Hai!" Taeyeon responded.

"Oh, they've got the Light Binding and Final Spark and Sunny and Balls don't have the defense!" Yoona said, comprehension dawning as Miss Fortune went down with Taeyeon firing that combo for most of the damage. "So they just basically went around Nautilus!"

"Pretty much." Aurora said. "And that's the downside to Nautilus building for tank and support and not for damage – that forces Lemon and Yuri to back off because they don't have enough damage to stop them by themselves. But they're already at the tower!"

"It's at least going to take a lot of damage since Shield of Daybreak is usable on structures and that definitely helps her pushing." I explained. "Lemon and Yuri had to recall as well after that because they went low, so this might do it!"

"Yeah, that's going to be it! They're trying to use that anchor to move faster along the wall and hurry back, but it's not fast enough!" Sooyoung said. "And there it is!"

Hai, Taeyeon, Hyoyeon and Seohyun celebrated and high-fived as the tower went down, but their celebration was more muted because it'd been more testing than our game had been.

"Oh, wow." Hyoyeon said as the opponents shook hands. "And the funny thing was Aurora was telling me that she needed to work on her stamina when she had dance practice with me and Jessica before the quarterfinals! I'd definitely have to work on the mental stamina for  _League_  because I don't know how much longer I could have held on there."

Aurora grinned and patted her on the back, saying. "Don't worry - part of that was that you were handling the mouse, so that's a little more demanding than the keyboard alone. And you had to deal with a lot of communication."

"That's true." Hyoyeon said.

"Hey, that was a good support Naut performance even though we took that." Hai told Lemon.

"Thanks. Yuri did her best too." Lemon said. "Sorry I couldn't have done better." He finished apologetically, turning to her.

"Don't blame yourself – at least we made them have to come up with something special." Yuri replied.

"Good game, Sunny  _noona_." Hai said as she shook her hand. "You too, Balls. You were working well out there."

"Yeah, she didn't want to lose to Taeyeon, so Tae's lucky she had you manning the mouse." Balls responded.

"I really was. I can see why he's the leader and shotcaller." Taeyeon answered.

* * *

After some more games, Jessica and Tiffany suggested a Mexican restaurant that they had passed by for dinner.

As Jessica said with a knowing smile as we approached, "There's no Chipotle in Korea, unfortunately, but I hope this works." The reason why it was a knowing smile was that she knew we hadn't eaten Mexican since we'd departed for boot camp the previous month.

"Don't worry, it should be good either way, Jessica  _noona_  – we trust you guys on this." Meteos said, "Let me see if they can make my usual..."

"If they can, do you mind if I have one?" Sooyoung asked before Meteos went in.

"Sure!" Meteos replied, and he went through the door and to the counter.

About ten minutes later, he came back out smiling and handed what was clearly a foil-wrapped burrito to Sooyoung. "Yep, we're good! Cheers, Sooyoung  _noona_."

"Thanks! And that's great – I'm glad they were able to help you out." Sooyoung said. "So what goes into the Meteos?"

"Chicken, white rice, mild salsa, pinto beans and cheese." Meteos replied.

"Oh, sounds good!" Sooyoung said, and she unwrapped hers and took a bite, saying once she'd swallowed, "Oh, I can see why you eat this as much as you do."

"We all eat it at least a bit each week – there's a reason why some have nicknamed us Chipotle 9." Sneaky said. "But Meteos puts away more than the rest of us do by far."

"Really?" Sooyoung asked, turning back to Meteos. "You know what the Korean term is for someone like you?"

"What's that?" Meteos asked in response once he'd finished another bite. "It's not anything bad, is it?"

"A  _shikshin_." Sooyoung said, smiling reassuringly. "And don't worry, it isn't. It just means 'god of food'."

Meteos gave a big smile and touched his burrito to Sooyoung's as if they had champagne glasses.


	7. Semifinals Part 2 – Vs. TSM: Home Comfots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Glossary_  
>  _Dragon_ – An epic monster in _League of Legends_. At the time of the main plotline (2014), slaying one awarded the whole team bonus Gold. Currently, there are various elemental Dragons that do not do so but award various bonuses like damage, Health and Mana Regen and movement speed.
> 
>  _OGN_ – OnGameNet, a gaming-focused TV channel in South Korea that is the organizer of the top i >League of Legends competition in the country.
> 
>  _Wombo Combo_ – This term actually originated in _Super Smash Bros. Melee_ and was used to describe a double-team combo by SilentSpectre and Tang during a doubles tournament. After the video of the cast went viral, MOBA commentators took to using the term to describe a combination of abilities from multiple players that decimate multiple opponents.

**_2014_  ** ** _League of Legends _****_World Championship_ **  
**_Semifinals_ **  
**_Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea_ **  
**_October 11th – 12th_ **

**_Cloud 9 (North America)_**  
Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)  
Jungle - Meteos (Will Hartman, USA)  
Mid - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)  
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)  
Support - Aurora (Caroline Aurora Lea, Canada)  
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)  
Coach/Emergency Sub - LemonNation (Daerek Hart, USA)

 ** _Team SoloMid (North America)_**  
Top - Dyrus (Marcus Hill, USA)  
Jungle - TheOddOne (Bryan Wyllie, Canada)  
Mid - Bjergsen (Søren Bjerg, Denmark)  
AD Carry - WildTurtle (Jason Tran, Canada)  
Support - Xpecial (Alex Chu, USA)  
Substitute/Owner - Reginald (Andy Dinh, USA)  
Coach - Locodoco (Choi Yoonsub, South Korea)

Most times, as with other Western teams, a little extra work went into preparation at Worlds not just because of the stakes but because we were playing against teams we had rarely played against, if ever. This time, though, we were up against an opponent we knew perhaps better than any other in the field (and vice versa) because we'd gone toe to toe so often back home.

The C9-TSM storyline needed no introduction. Team SoloMid had won the very first split of the North American LCS in Spring 2013 against Good Game University (now Team Coast). Then the original Cloud 9 had turned up after qualifying for the Summer Split and been a thorn in their side since. Not only were we three-time defending NA LCS champions, but the last three NA LCS finals, including the one earlier in the fall at PAX Prime, had all been contested by our two teams. Three of our starters (Hai, Meteos and Sneaky) had played in all three, while four of their starters had done the same (Dyrus, TheOddOne, WildTurtle and Xpecial.) Our owner and co-founder Jack had even gotten his experience in management with TSM before he'd received Reginald's blessing to head his own brand, which became C9, while WildTurtle had been part of Quantic (which had become Cloud 9) and had been trained up a bit by LemonNation.

Also, not since the very first  _League_  World Championship at Dreamhack Summer 2011 in Jönköping, Sweden had two North American teams faced each other in a Worlds playoff (specifically, TSM against Epik Gamer in a loser's bracket semifinal.)

"We are certain of one thing. If they had to choose between winning the last three NA LCS finals or winning this Worlds semifinal, they'd choose winning the semifinal, because we'd choose the same." Aurora said in some of her pre-match comments. Meanwhile, I was on the record as saying that I remembered how amazing it was when the GSL  _(StarCraft II)_  brought the Code S Finals to BlizzCon in 2011 – and now we were getting the chance to bring the NA LCS Finals to Korea with a spot in the Worlds Grand Finals on the line.

The semifinal venue was the Olympic Gymnastics Arena at the Olympic  Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, about an hour away from Fraser Place by foot  and public transportation. As the name suggested, it had been built as the gymnastics venue for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and since then, it had become a famous concert venue. Girls' Generation had  performed there, as had many other illustrious Korean and Western artists  including Super Junior, Big Bang, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift...and now  we, Team SoloMid, Samsung White and Oh My God would get to play there.

We went to watch the first semifinal between Oh My God and Samsung  White the day before our semifinal, and something that proved to be  fortuitous happened. In a very hotly contested series, OMG beat White in  five games, mainly thanks to Gogoing and Cool even though the entire  team played strongly. Even though we knew OMG was the real deal, we were picking our jaws off the floor because we admittedly were expecting to  have to face SSW in the finals. Then we also gradually realized that  everyone who'd been pulling for Samsung White first now had to choose  between one of the remaining three teams to support, and the clear majority picked us. We understood that this meant that they would favor  the winner of our semifinal, though, because either we or TSM would be up against the Chinese top guns who had knocked out the last Korean team  in the tournament.

Following the first semifinal, Taeyeon suggested that we arrive at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena half an hour earlier than we had planned.  The reason became apparent as we arrived to find that one of Girls' Generation's stylists and makeup artists was there to help us with  makeup before we went out. The guys needed just facial powder, but  Aurora was very happy at getting the chance to don that plus some  vibrant pink lipstick and some mascara.

After about fifteen minutes, Sunny, Yoona, Taeyeon, Tiffany and  Jessica, who had been meeting TSM first (to make things fair) arrived,  accompanied by another female idol who we recognized as Red Velvet's  Wendy – Aurora's favorite female idol outside of Girls' Generation and someone who I'd become a fan of too. Then Taeyeon gave us another  surprise, as she said, "We're actually also going to be helping with national anthems before everyone is seated. I'll be singing the Korean  one, while Wendy will do the Canadian one and Tiffany and Jessica will do the American one."

* * *

Unlike in the first semifinal, where OMG and Samsung White entered  from just offstage, we and TSM entered from the back going down towards  the stage down one aisle each, slapping hands with fans all the way  down. As big and energetic as the crowd had been in Busan, this crowd  was even bigger and more amped up – and the fact that it was not hostile  was a huge shot in the arm for everybody. As we made our way to the  stage and then turned to face the audience, we could also see quite a  few fans who had made the trip from North America.

Onstage close to our stations (called "sleds") were the banners of  both the World Championship and the North American LCS. The American and Canadian flags also hung over the stage next to the South Korean one.  Overall, it felt a lot like when we faced each other back in Los Angeles or Seattle, only kicked up quite a few notches because of the  atmosphere, including even more fired-up voices exchanging dueling fan chants as we took the stage and were introduced.

_"Cloud 9! Cloud 9! Cloud 9!"_

_"TSM! TSM! TSM! TSM!"_

Then Taeyeon emerged and the crowd exploded. All of us on the Cloud 9 side grinned at seeing that there were apparently a ton of SONEs in the crowd, and I noticed WildTurtle and Xpecial grinning too. We then bowed our heads respectfully as she sang  _Aegukga_  and then joined in  the big applause that followed. Then the Canadians – Aurora, OddOne and WildTurtle – came to the center and locked arms as Wendy sang  _O Canada_. More applause ensued, especially from Canadians and Red Velvet fans in  the crowd, and finally, the Americans – our whole team minus Aurora and  then also Dyrus and Xpecial – came to the center and locked arms as Tiffany and Jessica sang  _The Star-Spangled Banner_ , which got a surprisingly raucous cheer from the SONEs and the Americans in the crowd.

It was a big reminder to both teams if any of us ever needed it that  no matter who won, we had represented our countries and our region well and it would be up to us to do so again that night – and up to the  winner to do so one more time in the final. Looking to my left and right during the anthems, everyone knew it, and it was written on our faces. A number of us had been mouthing or murmuring our anthems as they were  sung as well.

We and TSM shook hands onstage with Tiffany, Jessica, Wendy and Taeyeon and then with each other before we broke to take our seats at  our positions and get ready.

Game 1 was close with both of our teams fired up but not managing to land blows until we took a big fight at the Dragon that threw the game  open for us. Game 2 was similar, only it happened even earlier and it accelerated faster since we had TSM firmly on their heels, meaning we headed offstage for the second break with a 2-0 lead and, needless to  say, in even higher spirits.

* * *

While we were discussing Game 3 plans backstage, Sunny, Yoona and Taeyeon were interviewed for the OGN broadcast while Tiffany and Jessica headed to the Riot analyst desk for an interview.

 **_Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere (EU LCS):_ ** _Welcome back to the 2014 World Championship semifinals, where Cloud 9  is up 2-0 over Team SoloMid in this best-of-5. Right now...well, I think  it should be said: "Right Now, It's Girls' Generation!" Because we have the pleasure of being joined by a pair of special guests – two of the  women who helped us with the anthems before this all-North American  clash got underway. It's Girls' Generation's JeTi – Jessica and Tiffany! Thank you very much for being here tonight and helping us._

**_Tiffany:_ ** _Thank you very much!_

**_Jessica:_** _Thank you, Sjokz. Glad to be here._

**_Sjokz:_** _Fantastic! I have to ask first...you and Cloud 9. It really has been an awe-inspiring story just from what we know about how you've interacted  with each other since meeting at KCON – did you see think for one moment that this would happen?_

**_Tiffany:_ ** _We certainly didn't, but looking back on it, it certainly wasn't an accident. I think both we and Cloud 9 not only enjoy each other's work  but also see how hard the other group has been working, and we both want  to do our best for our fans because we so often draw our strength from  them and it makes us want to do something we haven't done before. And  that admiration has drawn us closer."_

**_Jessica:_ ** _There's a reason why we picked them even over SK Telecom - as funny as  it sounds, we recognized that bit of ourselves in them and we know what it can do._

**_Sjokz:_ ** _Wow. Let me stay with you for this next question, Jessica. What was it  like hearing the C9 comms as they clinched victory against SKT last week  saying that that win was for you?_

**_Jessica:_ ** _It meant a lot, especially since they told me that not only did they want to support me during that tough period, but that they wanted to repay me for the support I gave after I was unable to travel to Guangzhou with the group. But I also knew it was for the group as a  whole as well, and I did like that very much...I must say I don't think I could have inspired what they did against SK Telecom by myself._

**_Mitch "Krepo" Voorspels (Evil Geniuses, guest analyst):_ ** _On a less serious note, and this is something you touched on...we've  talked about imports a lot this year, especially in North America – (at Froggen) and yes, I know I'm part of that – for our viewers who aren't  yet familiar with K-Pop or Girls' Generation, you two are actually, if  we're speaking in_   _League __terms, North American imports to Korea, hence your names._

 **_Tiffany:_ ** _Some of the Cloud 9 players have referred to us as such, and we do have fun with it. I think that's a reason that, while they get along with all of us, it's been even easier in our case. And it's true – we were  born in San Francisco – in the same hospital, actually...and both grew up in California. When we came to Korea – Sica did when she was 10, I did when I was 15 – we also attended the same foreign school in Seoul._

 **_Jessica:_ ** _I do remember that just after Cloud 9 beat SK Telecom, Sneaky said something when I was with them that made me laugh. He said, "NA Jessica > KR Jessica." I told him later that he could have also said,  "Jessica > Sooyeon", which is my Korean name. Oh, quick quiz question – what's Tiffany's Korean name?_

 **_Henrik "Froggen" Hansen (Alliance, guest analyst):_ ** _Miyoung?_

**_Tiffany:_ ** _Excellent! How did you find out? Because I was watching you and I know you didn't cop out and look at your notes._

**_Froggen:_ ** _We scrimmed Cloud 9 ahead of the semifinals and I asked each who their favorite Girls' Generation member was. Carlo said you were his favorite  and quizzed me on your Korean name. But still, that's unbelievable – and I need to listen to some of your music, but I can tell the synergy is  real. If only Krepo and I were born in the same hospital and went to the same school...then maybe we win OGN Summer two years ago._

**_Krepo:_ ** _That's probably you and Wickd since I'm not Danish, but thanks._

**_Trevor "Quickshot" Henry (EU LCS):_ ** _On that subject, one of our production team members, who is an avid fan  of yours, was telling me during the break that...we know that with CLG.EU and EG, the saying was "Fit with Snoopeh, Fat with Krepo, Fed  with Froggen."_

**_Krepo:_ ** _Yep._

**_Quickshot:_ ** _Well, these girls don't so much have a saying...as they have their own drink!_

**_Froggen:_** _No way!_

**_Quickshot:_ ** _We have some of it here – for those who don't know, there is actually a  chocolate drink called JeTi here in Korea and we have a box right here._

**_Jessica:_ ** _I actually drank that in high school, so this came out before we made our debut with Girls' Generation._

**_Tiffany:_ ** _Fans tell us that it fits us because it's sweet like our voices, and that always makes us happy._

**_Quickshot:_ ** _I would call it a well-deserved honor for sure. Now, back to some more serious matters...by now, even those of us who are not familiar with K-Pop have heard the news that you announced, Jessica, following the quarterfinals, that your last performance before stepping down from Girls' Generation will be in one week on the same day as the final. Have you two or anyone in the group considered performing at the final? Before you answer, please also allow us to say thank you for everything that you and the group have given us._

**_Jessica:_ ** _Thank you, Quickshot. That's very kind. In answer to that...we have.  There are three things we can say...one, nothing is set in stone yet  about whether we have that last performance at the final. Two, if we  did, we wouldn't be pushing aside Imagine Dragons. Three, it must be  said...if we did, nothing against the other teams, but we would love it  if we got to perform after a Cloud 9 victory._

* * *

For Game 3, which we would play from the red side, we picked Jinx for Sneaky, Thresh for Aurora, Kha'Zix for Meteos and finally two off-the-wall picks: Orianna for me and Kennen for Hai (normally picks for mid and top, not the other way around), while TSM, knowing they were  against the ropes, went to two unconventional but comfort picks in  Dyrus' and OddOne's favorite champions: Singed and then Maokai in the  jungle and also got LeBlanc for Bjergsen.

This time, though, TSM got off to a great start, especially thanks to  Dyrus, OddOne and Xpecial. Bjergsen also got fed significantly more and  earlier than he did in our other games in that series and back in North  America, which was the last thing anyone facing TSM needed. Adding to  that, Aurora went for an adventurous solo ward clear but got picked off.

"Sorry about that, I got impatient." Aurora said apologetically.

"Deep breath, everyone. Just gotta focus." I said supportively.

"Yeah, like I said, we have to know they're going to throw the kitchen sink at us when we're 2-0 up." Hai responded.

"Yeah..." Meteos said a bit sheepishly, before he said, "I think we  can turn this quickly, though. I think they're going to try  Baron...Wait, they are. I just saw them."

"Okay." Hai said. "Sneaky, Carlo and I all have ults ready. If they keep trying to take it, we'll go after them if they group."

"You smelling a steal, Meteos?" Sneaky asked with a grin.

"F**k yeah, I am." Meteos replied with a grin of his own.

"We might get it, but even if they secure it, they're not leaving that fight alive." Hai said determinedly. "Worth either way."

"Heck yeah. Okay, let's put it together!" I said.

**_Joe:_ ** _Baron has been dealing a lot of damage, though, and Hai and Carlo are  there along with Meteos, all coming from different angles and managing to dodge the TSM wards and not reveal themselves early. We could have  another big fight right now._

**_David "Phreak" Turley (NA LCS):_ ** _In goes Hai with Slicing Maelstrom and tags four! Shockwave follows!_

**_Joe:_ ** _Rocket's been fired as well and it's going to land!_

**_Phreak:_ ** _Whoa! It does land and that's Bjergsen and Turtle gone! Hai, Meteos and Carlo are going after Dyrus and OddOne with TSM low on health and missing their damage! And down they go! Baron was secured by TheOddOne, but Team SoloMid just lost four of its members, so I'm not sure if that was worth!_

**_Joe:_ ** _I don't think it was. Instead, it's going to be Cloud 9 pushing and getting one turret, maybe two._

**_Kobe:_ ** _You have to like the aggressive call there – even after Aurora gets  picked off, the remaining four members of Cloud 9 are still ready if TSM  tries to burst down the Baron with the man advantage and they line up  this wombo combo beautifully. Hai gets in before anyone can react, gets  his ultimate down, followed by the Shockwave and the Super Mega Death  Rocket, and from there, it was an easy cleanup. Baron is secured and  it's still on Xpecial, but those are about the only good things that  came out of that fight for TSM._

We did indeed get a pair or turrets off of it and also got ourselves in position to keep eyes on whether TSM went for the Dragon when the  next one arrived.

"Looks like someone's pulling on the line...make that five of them." Aurora said. "I should definitely be able to hook either Bjergsen or OddOne and give us the chance to burst him preemptively. I'm feeling it again."

"Nice." Hai said, poised. "Okay, start us off – that Dragon's going down fast."

"Come to mama..." Aurora said quietly but in a tone that still betrayed her focus. Then she threw out the Death Sentence, saw it connect and yelled, "Got him!"

"Nice! Bjergsen! Kill Bjergsen!" Hai shouted.

 **_Joe:_ ** _The hook lands onto Bjergsen! Shockwave goes down onto him and TheOddOne again! And this time, Meteos does come up with the steal! Another fight over an objective breaks out, and this time, Cloud 9 leave  no one standing!_

 **_Phreak:_ ** _Dragon as well on top of that. Cloud 9 have come back from a 3,000 Gold  deficit since before that fight at Baron to lead by almost 2,000 now, and it just looks to get bigger as they'll get more turrets off of this._

 **_Kobe:_ ** _You can also see that they're trying to settle down and re-establish  vision control as well. It's one of those things that you can sometimes forget when trying to come back because your eyes are on that objective  or that kill that can narrow or erase that gold deficit, but now that they're back in front, they're trying to do the little things as well to make sure TSM doesn't make another run._

We used the chance that ace gave us to push down mid, which we hadn't  been able to do successfully that game yet, all the way to the  inhibitor turret.

"Just make sure Sneaky doesn't die and we should have this siege." Hai said.

"Yeah, finally been able to eat this game instead of feeding. FeelsGoodMan." Sneaky said with a grin.

"Got you covered – saving Protect for if they try to take you out, Sneaky." I said reassuringly.

"Okay, Carlo, I'm counting on you." Sneaky responded. "Oh, here we go!"

 **_Joe:_ ** _Bjergsen goes in on Sneaky, but Carlo's ready with the Command: Protect and Sneaky stays alive. Aurora even lands another hook and they've killed Bjergsen again! I wouldn't even call that a bad decision from him – it was just an even better reaction by Cloud 9!_

 **_Phreak:_ ** _I completely agree, Joe. That means a 5v4 in favor of Cloud 9 and Meteos leaps forward with Aurora's lantern as a quick escape option and  chunks WildTurtle to below half! Dyrus wants to look for the toss, but  Aurora gets in and Flays him to disrupt that. Nobody else goes down, but TSM's forced to back off and this will likely be their inhibitor going  down_ **_._ **

**_Kobe:_ ** _A huge pick there, especially with Baron respawning just now. Bjergsen is not coming back for another ten seconds and Cloud 9 is making sure  all of their vision is in place so that they can track TSM while they  start it up._

As it turned out, TSM elected to concede the Baron since we'd knocked  out one of their inhibitors and their strongest player, so we quickly  took it down and launched a 4-1 split push with Meteos mid and pushing  and empowering a wave going towards TSM's Nexus turrets while the rest  of us besieged the top inhibitor turret.

 **_Phreak:_ ** _Keep your eyes on Aurora here – she has really stepped up with those  hooks. If she gets another one, it very well could be a ticket to the  finals that she reels in too for Cloud 9._

 **_Joe:_ ** _Hook goes out and she's got one, all right, and it's WildTurtle! He  gets locked up and finished off, and that's a 4v3 now in favor of C9 as  Meteos is keeping Dyrus busy! TSM has got to go in and they do as OddOne  activates Vengeful Maelstrom and looks for Sneaky. Bjergsen does so as  well, but the Slicing Maelstrom / Shockwave combo lands again! Sneaky's  still not down and is still doing so much damage! It's a triple kill for him in the end as Cloud 9 look to go all the way!_

"Mom, what's in the box?!" Meteos was screaming ecstatically.

"Hey, I'm not Mrs. Hartman, but I'll tell you what it is, Meteos – a ticket to the Worlds finals!" I yelled.

**_Phreak:_** _As the Nexus turrets fall, it's on the other side of the Pacific, but it's a familiar story: Cloud 9 rises above TSM and they will represent North America in the World Championship finals against OMG!_

It was as we took off our headsets and jumped up that the noise hit  us again and the feeling overtook us that we were seriously doing  something that nobody in our region had done before. There was now a World Championship grand final in one week – and we would be the first North American team to play in it.

"We made it!" Sneaky yelled, almost gruffly. "It's lit, fam!"

"We're going to the 'ship! We're going to the 'ship!" Aurora was chanting as we huddled up.

"Yo, one more to go, but if we do what we did tonight, we can be World Champions. Let's do it!" Hai exhorted, and we all agreed as we  broke the huddle.

We went over to Team SoloMid and they, like SKT, were understandably  down on themselves. However, when we came over, they were quicker to  graciously get to their feet and shake hands with us.

"Hey, good game. You guys be sure to beat OMG for us, all right?" Dyrus told Hai.

"We got you, fam." Hai replied.

"The score might say otherwise, but that was no stomp." I said to  TheOddOne as I shook his hand. "You guys made us work for that."

"Thanks, man." He replied. "Promise is a promise – we'll be there at the final to cheer you on!"

"We'll do our best for you guys too, don't worry." Aurora said, clapping him on the shoulder.

We also did the same thing as we'd done with SKT after the previous  round and invited them to take a bow onstage with us. They then went off to allow us our moment of glory, and as the crowd chanted as one, I could feel more energy than what they'd given to OMG the previous night. I looked at the others and saw that they sensed it too – another collective message saying,  _Do it for us!_

* * *

Following our interviews and packing our gear, the Soshis offered to  take us in a pair of vans to Seoul World Cup Stadium so we could see  right away where we would be playing in a week's time, and we  immediately accepted. We thus made the trip over there and had the honor  of looking up at it, lit up as night had fallen, and marveling at it  while also savoring the fact that in one week, we would play there for  all the marbles.

There was no shortage of hugging and cheering as Seohyun, Sooyoung, Yuri and Hyoyeon, who had finished their schedules, greeted the other  twelve of us as we arrived. Soon, though, everyone fell quiet as the Soshis realized that we were taking in the stadium in full because we  were awestruck by it. Built for the 2002 World Cup, it was and remains the largest purpose-built soccer (football) stadium in Asia and had also  hosted concerts including the SM Live World Tour opening stop earlier  that August, which Girls' Generation had been a part of, and is by far  the biggest venue in terms of seating capacity and size to host a  _League of Legends_  match.

Hai was the first to speak again, and he just managed to say two words, although they resonated with everyone. "One more."

"One more." Taeyeon agreed, taking his hand as they smiled at each other.

"One more." Jessica echoed, though, like Taeyeon, it was for both the  same and different reasons and her smile had some wistfulness to it.

"Hey, Sica...don't worry. You deserve to be there.  _I_  want you there." Taeyeon said, holding out her hand encouragingly.

"Thanks a lot, Taengoo." Jessica replied gratefully, and she hugged her quickly but tightly before she accepted her hand.

Aurora smiled at that and finished doing a brief bit with her phone.  In a moment, we could see what, as her headset, which was around her  neck, began playing some some classic Wonder Girls that made us smile  and captured the moment.

 _I want nobody, nobody but you_  
_I want nobody, nobody but you_  
_Nan dareun sarameun sirheo_  
_Niga animyeon sirheo_  
_I want nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody_

 **_English_ **  
_I want nobody, nobody but you_  
_I want nobody, nobody but you_  
_I don't want anyone else_  
_I can't have anyone but you_  
_I want nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody_

"Come on, let's get the team in can see just what it's like in  there." Taeyeon said, turning to Hai with an even brighter smile, waving  us onward and approaching one of the security personnel, who smiled and  opened the closest door.

 ** _Semifinal Results_** _– Venue: Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul_  
Semifinal 1 (October 11th) – Oh My God (China) 3-2 Samsung Galaxy White (Korea)  
Semifinal 2 (October 12th) – Cloud 9 (North America) 3-0 Team SoloMid (North America)

 ** _The Final_** _– Venue: Seoul World Cup Stadium_  
Final (October 19th) – Oh My God (China) vs. Cloud 9 (North America)

_Graphic_


	8. Final Part 1 – Building Crescendo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a lot of these next two chapters as we had the climax to the group stages and Cloud 9 advancing by the skin of their teeth to the quarterfinals to face Samsung. Still on a big high after that – and I knew Samsung would be no picnic, but the team had already equaled its best performance at Worlds and had a chance to go farther than they ever had. One thing was for sure – I was going to watch the action from Chicago with bated breath the whole week because every quarterfinal had a big reason to watch! I'd also planned to do two more chapters before I consider this complete, though I may add more afterwards.  
> Usual rules apply – reviews welcome, but please, no flaming because you're not a fan.
> 
>  _Glossary_  
>  _Maknae_ – A term used to describe the youngest member of a K-Pop group. As such, the member becomes known at least initially for a childlike charm as opposed to a more mature one.
> 
> _Backdoor _– A tactic of sneaking into the enemy base while most of the enemy team is elsewhere and successfully destroying the enemy's Nexus to win the game. Alternatively called the xPeke in _League_ as his backdoor against SK Gaming at IEM Katowice in 2013 is considered the most famous play in _League _history by a Western player.____
> 
> _____Steal_ – In _League of Legends_ , the slayer of a neutral monster (and the beneficiary of any buffs it grants) is not determined by who deals the most damage to it but by who deals the last hit, and so it is possible to steal an objective by dealing this last hit after the other team has done most of the damage. Junglers are often the ones who can steal objectives, as they are armed with Smite, a Summoner Spell that deals true damage (unaffected by Armor or Magic Resistance) to monsters._ _ _ _

The final quickly became the talk of Seoul and of Korea, to say nothing of the entire  _League of Legends_  competitive scene (especially in North America and China) and even of the E-Sports world. As we walked around, it was hard not to see print and video advertisements from the final showing either us, Oh My God or both. Prep was also back to very serious since it was the finals and since we hadn't faced OMG nearly as much as we'd faced Team SoloMid.

At the same time, it was also the last week before Girls' Generation's final performance before Jessica stepping down, and there was still no word about where it would be or at what time it would be. Particularly after Tiffany and Jessica's interview with Sjokz, Quickshot, Froggen and Krepo during our semifinal against TSM, a few people were speculating that it could have something to do with the final. With just a few days to go, it was also confirmed that it would just be a single song.

To add to things, two of us had meetings with Soshis concerning affairs of the heart – Hai with Taeyeon and me with Tiffany. In both cases, a lot of texts had been exchanged since boot camp the previous month, and they'd requested to meet with us alone since before the quarterfinals. I later confirmed with Hai that neither of us had certainly never expected we'd be in that kind of situation when we'd met Girls' Generation at KCON in August, which already seemed like a long time ago.

* * *

On Thursday night, I went to meet Tiffany at a lounge. Before she could make her way there, though, she texted me saying that something had come up – as I later found out, it was something regarding a later schedule.

She'd received a text from me saying that I was waiting there. When she texted me ten minutes later saying she was still being held up, though, there was no response. Very worried, she had arrived at the lounge thirty minutes late – as she later told me, she wouldn't have blamed me one bit if I'd decided to get up and leave.

When she got there, though, she found that I hadn't left yet and also found out why I hadn't left or responded to her second text. I was seated by myself at the back with a glass of Coca-Cola. My forearms were on the table and my chin was resting on my hand, and as she got closer, she could see that I had dozed off waiting. As she found out from me later that meeting, I'd slept badly because I'd been particularly restless over the coming series.

She later said she felt guilty that I'd waited so long that I'd fallen asleep as she woke me as gently as she could with a sideways hug. However, I still started, gasping, "Aah!" I then looked around a bit wildly before I digested where I was and said quietly but audibly enough, "Oh, thank goodness..." I could also hear and feel myself breathing a bit heavily.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Tiffany asked, recognizing what must have happened.

"Yeah." I managed to say.

"Oh, no...was it because of me? I'm so sorry..." She said apologetically.

"Don't worry, it wasn't. You were in it, but it wasn't because of a mistake you made. It was something I did." I said in a similar tone.

"What was it?" She asked, concerned.

I took a sip of my Coke to gather myself and then replied, "I dreamt we'd lost the final...I felt so bad seeing the looks on everyone's faces, but the worst part was seeing yours. You looked so heartbroken, so disappointed...It broke my heart too." As it was with dreams, the images faded from my mind – in this case, mercifully – but that last image stuck to me for a little longer and made me promise myself that I'd do all I could to not let it happen.

"Is that what you're afraid of? Letting people down?" Tiffany asked.

"Not just that...it's what I fear more than anything else." I replied sincerely. "More than failure, more than even death."

"Really?" She asked, stunned.

"Really." I answered, not averting my eyes.

"Do you mean...you don't want to disappoint me the most because you care about me that much?" She asked.

For a second, I felt myself frozen by fear. Then I remembered that emotional night at Fraser Place, when Jessica had told me to not be afraid to open up to Tiffany and I'd promised to be brave, and I found my voice and allowed myself to be daring and take the plunge.

"It's true...I've fallen for you, Tiffany  _noona_. I love how you light up the world with everything you have – your smile, your eye smile, your voice, your kindness, your laughter – like you were born to do it...and in my mind, you  _were_  born to do it. I even love how brave you are – you proved it when you decided to come here to chase your dreams and I know you've only become braver since. And all that's without me saying you're beautiful."

I looked her in the eyes to both underline my point and gauge her response. I couldn't tell much – only that she was taken aback.

"I know there's so many people who could make you happier more easily than I can and I know I'm far from perfect, but if you granted me the chance, I'd do all I could to give you some light in return."

After a few moments, she said, "Oh, my...Carlo...I..."

"Hang on...whether it's yes or no, please don't tell me now. Save it until after the finals." I said.

"Are..are you still mad at me because I was so terribly late?" Tiffany asked, clearly worried.

"It's not that, don't worry." I said gently. "I promise. It's just that if you give an answer right now, no matter what it is, I might not be as focused as I need to be."

* * *

"Why, Jessi?" She had asked Jessica, puzzled. "Why did he tell me not to say anything? Did he think I was going to reject him?"

"I think I know, Tiff." Jessica replied. "He thought it through and decided that if you rejected him, he would have been heartrboken, and if you accepted him, he'd be so happy that he might not be able to think straight. Either way, he wouldn't be in the best shape emotionally. So he just didn't trust himself to properly deal with your response before the finals."

"I understand..." Tiffany said. Amazingly, I later found out that she was wiping her eyes here. "That's wise of him."

"What would you have told him?" Jessica asked.

Tiffany took a moment but then said firmly but sincerely, "I've fallen for him too..." Then she added, "I should apologize to him so much, because I was just so stunned at him feeling the same way that he probably thinks I don't like him."

"It's okay. I have a feeling it will work out...Can I tell you something?" Jessica asked, laying a hand on her arm comfortingly. "When you texted him on the night I went to Fraser Place, I told him to not be afraid to open himself up to you for two reasons. One, you're my best friend, and two, I could tell what you thought of him. Just the fact that you asked him if you could meet him alone told me a lot."

"Thanks a lot, Jessi." Tiffany replied, giving her a quick sideways hug.

"Anything for you." Jessica replied. "Was there anything else from your time with him?"

"Yes." Tiffany replied. "I asked him, 'You're a DJ...could you find a way to play a song we really like tomorrow when you're onstage? In a manner of speaking, of course.'"

"What did he say?" Jessica asked.

Tiffany responded, "He grinned and replied, 'We do have a little strat that we haven't dared tell anyone about. It needs to be into the right kind of opposing team comp, but we'll definitely keep our eyes out. Not only is it something I've wanted to do, but it's become something  _we've_  wanted to do for a while now.'"

Jessica smiled. "Knowing him, if he gets the chance, he'll do it. And the rest of the team will be ready to back it up."

* * *

On Friday, Hai met with Taeyeon again at a snack bar.

"I've never had the chance to play at a stadium like we will on Sunday, and given what's happened to me, I don't know when or if I'll have the chance again." Hai was saying. "Well, maybe IEM Katowice, but I don't really count that since they used only half of it."

"I think you also don't count it because it was the last tournament that you entered and didn't win." Taeyeon said understandingly. "I'd have done the same."

"Yeah, that too. That was the last one before Aurora and Carlo joined the main roster." Hai said, nodding.

"What was it like after you had the collapsed lung?" Taeyeon asked. "Sunny does deal with it as best as she can, but you've probably heard or seen that she's had to deal with those knee problems."

"It's okay. It does mean I can't practice as long as I once could...I think the wrist problems have been more worrying, though, because that's what bothers me more often during a game." He replied.

"How do you manage to lead and shotcall as well as you can after all that?" She asked.

"I basically force myself to believe we're better than the other team, even if we're not at a certain point in the game." He responded. "Because if I don't, then I can't make the right calls."

Taeyeon's smile grew into one of kinship, admiration and affection, while Hai's was part cheeky and part abashed.

"I haven't had to compete head to head as much as you have and it's been so long, but I remember that so well. Having to wake up in those early days and continually tell myself that we were good enough...that we had what it took even when we hadn't yet made our mark." She said. Hai said he could tell she was reaching back to what seemed like days long gone, even though it had only been 2007.

"Because if you don't believe it..." Hai said.

"Then the team won't..." Taeyeon continued knowingly.

"And they can tell..." Hai continued, nodding...

"...Even if you don't say anything." They finished together.

They shared a laugh. She then said, "Can I ask you something else?"

"Sure, go right ahead." He answered.

"Was that basically what you were thinking when you asked if we could schedule our last performance with Jessica until after the finals?" She asked.

"That was part of it. What also gave me the courage to do that was...I could sense something." Hai said, and it was his turn to cast his mind back, though not nearly as far. "I could tell Sneaky, Meteos and Lemon all wanted to do something, to say nothing of Balls, Aurora and Carlo, when Jessica gave us the news. I then made the request, because I could tell for sure I wasn't the only one who was going to go in with that drive. And that's when I found out that all of them would because they were ready to fight for you guys too."

"Any idea on who they wanted to fight for most of the nine of us?" Taeyeon inquired.

"Well, I'm fairly confident in saying that all of us wanted to do it for Jessica because she was in the most pain, but she's taken." Hai said with a chuckle. "Yuri for Lemon, but he's got a girlfriend and is happy with her. Meteos and Sneaky for Sooyoung and Yoona..."

"Seohyun too, I think. She knows Sneaky's your  _maknae_." Taeyeon said.

"Second  _maknae_ , actually – Balls is younger than Sneaky by a little bit." Hai informed. "But it's still a good point. From there, Aurora for Hyoyeon as a friend, Balls for Sunny and Carlo for Tiffany."

Taeyeon smiled, nodded and then asked, "And what about you?"

Hai smiled. He then asked, "Well, let me try this...If there's one single member of SNSD you want me to fight for on Sunday, Taengoo  _noona_ , who is it?"

Taeyeon's smile changed to something neither Hai or any of us had seen up close. She motioned as if she wanted to take Hai's hand, and he smiled, nodded and allowed her to do so.

"Hai, could that one be me?" She asked.

"I was hoping you'd say that." He answered. "I'd be happy to fight for you on Sunday...beyond that if you'd let me."

"I would love that." Taeyeon said, and she leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek. " _Saranghaeyo_ , Hai."

" _Anh yêu em_." Hai replied, smiling as he returned the kiss. " _Saranghaeyo_ , Taeyeon  _noona_."

"Oh, Vietnamese?" Taeyeon replied with a cheeky grin. "Oh, that's right, because your family's from there!"

Hai returned the grin. "Just don't ask me to say it in Chinese – I'll need some good lessons from Hyoyeon before I can do that if that's what you want."

* * *

On the night before the final, Girls' Generation visited the World Cup Stadium again and made the home locker room, which we would be using, one of their final stops. They found the lockers with our name plates above them and placed our new jerseys inside...

_(Author's Note: These are this year's jerseys, which Hai is modeling here. The only differences are that in this story, there are country flags added to the sleeves and the sponsors are the 2014 sponsors.)_

...which had country flags added to the sleeves, inside along with individual letters that they had written (for example, Aurora had letters from Jessica and Hyoyeon, while Hai had a letter from Taeyeon.) They also left another envelope in each of our lockers, which read,

_Dear Cloud 9,_

_We've always said that while we are nine different people, we are as one, and that means we feel each other's pain and also share each other's joy as if it were our own. Today is no different._

_Every fight, every kill, every death, every defeat, every victory...we'll feel it with you._

_But don't be afraid. We know and believe in our hearts that you can accomplish what you set out to do tomorrow not just for yourselves...not just for us too...but for all who believe in you...here, back in North America, and even around the world._

_Embrace the moment. Amaze us. Make us dream._

_And no matter what, we'll be watching throughout and we'll be there before it's all over._

_You've already proven that you're winners and champions. Now go out and prove you're world champions._

_All our love,_  
소녀시대  _(So Nyuh Shi Dae / Girls' Generation)_

* * *

Before they went to the final, though, there were some schedules that Girls' Generation had been unable to get out of, as they had both hinted at and explained to us. For example, Taeyeon and Jessica were making a guest appearance on a radio show just after Game 1 – which OMG won. The Soshis knew from us and from what they'd read elsewhere that Oh My God was also coming into the grand finals in great shape. We'd beaten them at All-Stars, but they had also been using Xiyang as a substitute for their regular mid-laner Cool, the most popular active Chinese mid following the retirement of Team WE's Misaya. They'd also always been able to rely on captain and top-laner Gogoing, widely considered the best top-laner in the LPL, and jungler Loveling, while support Cloud had stepped up after being subbed in following the group stage.

During the tournament, they'd also delved into the K-Pop/C-Pop scene when they did a cover of EXO-M's  _Light of the Planet_ , which was seriously cool to see. All that said, though, the girls were still shocked and understandably worried when they took the first game.

Before they went into the studio, Taeyeon saw Jessica take a phone call, where she finished by saying, "Yes. Thank you very much! Okay, we'll see you as soon as we can."

"Who was that?" Taeyeon asked.

"It's Jack." Jessica answered.

"Oh, Cloud 9's owner?" Taeyeon asked, coming over. "What did he say?"

"He said the team's refocusing, getting over their nerves...and he also told me congratulations." Jessica replied, breaking into a smile.

"What's going on?" Taeyeon asked excitedly.

"I took some time to think just after the semifinals and thought back to how much I enjoyed being with Cloud 9 before quarterfinals when I couldn't make it to Guangzhou with the girls...I asked him if I could join as a consulting manager after I stepped down from the group." Jessica answered.

"And?" Taeyeon asked, now smiling too.

"You won't believe this...he told me he'd love it!" Jessica answered. "He said he remembered how well the team responded to me being there before the quarterfinals."

Taeyeon's smile grew even more, and she engulfed Jessica in a sisterly hug. "Congratulations, Sica! I couldn't think of a better person for that to happen to! You know else that means, right?"

"What is it?" Jessica asked.

"We'll really still be one even though you'll be with Aurora and the boys and get to do your own thing too – they are part of us, after all." Taeyeon answered, tightening her hug again. "I'm so happy for you!"

"It's more than I could have hoped for, Tae." Jessica said, starting to tear up. "I always thought this day would be so bittersweet...and it still will be...but at least I get to celebrate starting a new chapter too."

"They'll make sure you really get that chance. They're going to have to kill Hai – and I mean  _literally_  kill him – to stop him from fighting for that championship." Taeyeon said firmly. "And that's to say nothing about the others."

* * *

About 50 minutes later, they had finished up, and Sunny, who had been finishing a schedule of her own nearby, came running up to them.

"They won Game 2!" She exclaimed, glowing.

"Yes!" Jessica exclaimed, giving a big sigh of relief, cheering and high-fiving them.

"All right!" Taeyeon whooped, before she asked Sunny, "What happened?"

"They outmaneuvered them and Hai pulled off a backdoor to end the game while OMG was trying for Baron!" Sunny said excitedly.

Taeyeon's face flushed with excitement as Sunny pulled up the replay on her phone. Hai had used Twisted Fate's Destiny / Gate to catch a wave of super minions and backdoor OMG while the rest of us had kept OMG busy near the Baron and prevented them from recalling.

Her face lit up as she saw OMG's Nexus explode, and she said quietly but clearly, "Hai, you magnificent man." Then she turned to the others who were there and said, "Okay. Everyone to the World Cup Stadium as soon as they're able. Our other seven members need us there!"

Texts flew out as well, and it soon became evident that nobody needed to be told twice. Girls' Generation was on its way to the World Cup Stadium post haste.

* * *

Luckily, none of the others was that far away, and everyone was at the stadium and getting ready by the time Game 3 got underway.

In the meantime, even more people were filing into the stadium, adding to the already great crowd that had been there when the broadcast had started, and while we didn't know it yet, just about all of them were on our side. With the increased interest in the final, previously unopened seating sections had been opened on the day of the final itself, and SM had pulled off a big feat in buying up the vast majority of them after Girls' Generation had first privately disclosed to the people upstairs that they were interested in performing at the final.

These tickets were then awarded to  _League_ -playing SONEs, prioritizing honorable players (meaning those who weren't or hadn't been banned or chat-restricted for toxicity and such), collaborating with Riot Korea to verify their records. As Sunny later told us, "We've never leaned on it too much, but there are times we're glad that my uncle's the top person at SM." The group had then explained to those who had tickets – who had then spread the word – that if the performance wasn't at the final, then they would tell them where it was and provide the transportation there. The response from the fans had been very positive – including because many said they hoped to see them perform after we won.

On that subject, Taeyeon, who got ready first, made a beeline for Imagine Dragons, who had the final say on whether that idea could go ahead because they were the originally announced closing ceremony concert act, since they had provided  _Warriors_  as the theme of the 2014 Worlds. She had an idea that involved one of them and was hoping they could help with it.

Meanwhile, the others were congratulating Jessica on joining Cloud 9 and shared Taeyeon's sentiment down to the last woman – it meant that while she was stepping down, they really still would be one because she was joining us after they'd welcomed us and begun to consider us as a part of them following our resolution that Hai had led to win Worlds for them while their original roster was still together. They were also watching Game 3 intently, with those who were still getting ready relying on the commentary and the other girls' reactions.

"Oh, yes!" Sooyoung burst out. "That's our Meteos!"

"What happened?" Seohyun asked, unable to look over because she was one of the ones who was still getting her makeup done.

"OMG tried to rush Baron after they nearly killed Sneaky, but Meteos managed to steal it! They got a couple more kills on top of it and they're pushing!" Sooyoung replied ecstatically.

"Are they going for the win right now?" Seohyun asked, also excited.

"Not quite, but they're getting very close!" Yuri replied, who was also watching the broadcast after she finished getting ready. "I think it's going to be 2-1 and match point soon enough!"

"It should be." Hyoyeon said. "I'm confident that Cool didn't mean any disrespect, but I really didn't want him to win against Aurora and the boys after he picked Ahri!"

"At least he picked Dynasty Ahri and not Popstar Ahri." Tiffany said gratefully. "That would have felt so awkward."

Everyone nodded together. Seohyun and Yoona were the last two to finish getting ready, but as they turned to watch the screen, they saw us ace OMG after Aurora, who was playing Nami, landed a massive Tidal Wave that allowed us to clean up with Sneaky and Meteos in the lead. OMG, wanting to get it behind them and move on mentally to Game 4, didn't even wait for us to take out their Nexus.

"Oh, it's a surrender!" Hyoyeon said, as everyone whooped.

"It is! Wow...you can tell they're in their opponents' heads right now." Tiffany said.

Meanwhile, we all celebrated a bit but showed more steely focus than anything as we headed offstage, though we made sure to wave to the crowd.  _One more game,_  we were all thinking.

"Is it just me, or do they look even more handsome and beautiful today?" Jessica asked. They could also see that Aurora had a new ruffled skirt that she hadn't worn onstage that went above her knees and was white with a blue hem and sash, while I had opted for some changes too with an elbow-length white undershirt that went past my jersey and black shin-length pants with white socks. Sneaky had also been steadily losing weight since we'd arrived in Korea and looked very slim.

"They really do, Sica  _unnie_." Yoona said, smiling. "They knew they had to really look good for today like us."

Each Girls' Generation outfit for the final performance – ranging from separate short skirts and tops to dresses reaching to above the knees – had both the pink "GG Crown" Girls' Generation emblem that dated back to their self-titled debut album and a blue Cloud 9 emblem, with their name next to a small country flag below the GG Crown. All were predominantly white with blue skirts, accents or both, with the exception of Jessica's, which was a blue sleeveless top with a white skirt as a nod to her joining C9, and included high heels. They bore a further resemblance to our jersey in that the tops also bore our sponsor logos (in their case, down the right side below the C9 logo.)

They also finished putting on jackets so they didn't give away everything if the cameras went on them, which they were bound to.

Sunny then reached for the door handle to peek outside, but Taeyeon stopped her, looking back at the screen. "Wait, Sunny – I think they're going by outside." She said cautiously.

Sure enough, a backstage camera on the Riot broadcast showed that both we and OMG were going by the room where they'd been getting ready.

About ten minutes after we'd passed, they got in some brief extra practice and then left the room. Eventually, they emerged to take their seats in the front row of one of the newly opened sections, which was filled with people who were SONEs cheering for C9, and an amazing sight greeted their eyes.

The stadium nights were ablaze as night had fallen, and over 60,000 people were seated in the stands and in seats on the field, many of whom had Thunder Stix and signs. North American and Chinese fans were also distinguishable since they'd brought American, Canadian and Chinese flags. Two elevated walkways connected to platforms in front of the stands at the goal ends, and it was by this way that we and OMG had entered at the start of the series. Another path went from the players' tunnel at midfield and up stairs to the stage in the center of the field.

On this stage were the two banks of stations, but this time, the two banks faced each other and also pointed towards the center, where the silver bejeweled Summoner's Cup rested on a pedestal. Our side had our team banner and the NA LCS banner, while OMG's side had their team banner and the LPL banner. Numerous video screens were also set up so people could see what was going on while still being able to see the stage. Also, as the girls later found out from us, our NA LCS and LPL colleagues who had also played in the tournament were in the front rows behind the two teams to lend their support to the finalists.

We were already seated again, as was OMG, because the draft for Game 4 was about to begin.


	9. Final Part 2 – Vs. OMG: Genie (Tell Me Your Wish)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Glossary (for those new to League)_
> 
> _Ward – An item that grants vision nearby._
> 
> _Teleport_ – A Summoner Spell that allows the user to warp after a brief channeling period to a friendly minion, turret or ward. Since 2014, it has invariably been one of the two Summoner Spells chosen by top laners to boost their mobility and allow them to make cross-map plays, but it is not unheard of for mid-laners to choose Teleport as well.
> 
>  _Flash_ – A Summoner Spell that allows the user to teleport a short distance. It can be used offensively to get close to an opponent or defensively to get out of danger. It is almost invariably one of the two Summoner Spells that every competitive or even serious player chooses.
> 
>  _Ace_ – The _League_ term for a team wipe, where every member of the opposing team is eliminated.
> 
>  _Pentakill_ – An ace that involves a single player eliminating all five opponents, considered one of the most emphatic things one can do in _League of Legends_.
> 
>  _Draft_ – In _League of Legends_ , ranked and professional drafts begin with the two teams taking turns banning champions until each team has banned three each. The blue side team then gets the first pick, and the two teams then pick two champions each before the red team gets the last pick. This means the blue team is guaranteed the first pick of any unbanned champion, but the red team also gets a guaranteed counterpick. (In 2017, this expanded to five bans per team over two phases.)

_**2014 League of Legends World Championship** **  
Grand Finals** **  
Seoul World Cup Stadium (Sangam Stadium), Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea** _   
**October 19th**

__**Cloud 9 (North America)  
** Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)  
Jungle - Meteos (Will Hartman, USA)  
Mid - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)  
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)  
Support - Aurora (Carolina Aurora Lea, Canada)  
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)  
Coach/Emergency Sub - LemonNation (Daerek Hart, USA) **  
**

_**Oh My God (China)**_  
Top - Gogoing (Gao Di-Ping, China)  
Jungle - Loveling (Yin Le, China)  
Mid - Cool (Yu Jia-Jun, China)  
AD Carry - San (Guo Jun-Liang, China)  
Support - Cloud (Hu Zhen-Wei, China)  
Substitute - DaDa777 (Fang Hong-Ri, China)

_**Deman:**  So, is this the moment? Cloud 9 are on championship point here at the World Championships and they have two chances to win it, but they'll want to do it on the first one. What do you think comes out from OMG, who have to be reeling after that last game where they had Baron stolen?_

_**Joshua "Jatt" Leesman (NA LCS):**  I do think they go to comfort picks because Cloud 9 has won two different ways using two different team comps now after they shook off their nerves in the first game. I'd expect to see OMG ban Cloud 9's picks from the previous game as much as possible to minimize them playing champions they're red hot with. I also wonder if, since Cloud 9 is on blue side again, whether Hai picks away Zed from Cool if he goes unbanned._

_**Rivington "Riv" Bisland III (NA LCS):**  If that's the case, maybe OMG will end up essentially wasting a ban on a champion Cloud 9 doesn't want to play in this game anyway, and the way Cloud 9 is playing, OMG needs everything they can get._

The girls finished taking their seats just as the bans finished – we banned Kassadin, Kha'Zix and Tristana while OMG banned Leona, Sona and Twisted Fate – and held their breath as they knew the picks would start in earnest right there and then.

_**Jatt:**  Oh, wow, first pick Soraka for Cloud 9!_

_**Deman:**  So Aurora gets her signature champion and you can see how happy she is about that...do you think Cloud 9 are thinking now about what champions they want the designers to make skins for if they win this?_

_**Riv:**  Possibly, but we have to think they also have a comp that would work around it._

_**Jatt:**  Well, they certainly have run quite a few successful comps around her on the way here. OMG's first two picks are now also in – Jayce comes in, which we've seen Cool play, as well as Jinx for San, and that's a lot of poke straight away._

_**Deman:**  And another quick reply – this is a heck of a hover in response. Zac and Draven for Meteos and Sneaky, which are two more signature champions._

_**Riv:**  We see them smiling – are they going to lock them in?_

_**Jatt:**  This crowd hasn't seen them do it here in Korea, but they're anticipating having that chance...and they will get it as they do lock them in!_

_**Deman:**  Oh, this is looking to be a firecracker straight away – all three of Cloud 9's initial picks are not just comfort picks but the champions people associate the most with Meteos, Sneaky and Aurora. This looks to be fun to watch, no question – let's just hope it pans out once again._

_**Riv:**  Rengar and Ryze are the next two picks for OMG, so this is going to be an especially scary team if they get ahead or even just hold on and get to late game. And of course, Gogoing has to be happy at getting to play Ryze again with everything on the line._

_**Deman:**  Carlo just let out a big sigh of relief. I think he's going to get the pick he wants. Only question is, what does he have in mind this time? We've seen him win tonight with Sejuani and then draw a Leona ban after another stellar performance._

_**Jatt:**  That anxious look has been turning into a smile quickly. What do they have up their sleeves? Whoa!_

_**Riv:**  Oh, boy!_

_**Deman:**  Ahri and Zed are the final two picks for Cloud 9!_

"Oh, my God, they actually picked her!" Jessica yelled as the crowd gasped, screamed and cheered.

"Oh, wow!" Taeyeon exclaimed, her hands going to her head. "My gosh...Okay, Zed has to be Hai's pick. So does that mean Carlo's picking Ahri in the top lane?"

"Looks like it...do you think he's going to pick our skin?" Yuri asked.

"I think...I think he just might." Tiffany said with nervous excitement, thinking back to what I'd told her.

_**Jatt:**  I definitely can't tell what's going on here either. From what little I know at this point, here's what I can say: It's possible that it's Hai who has the pocket Ahri, but it's much more likely that he takes Zed, which he has had a resurgence on including in the quarterfinal perfect game against SKT, which means this is a top-lane Ahri for Carlo, which is something we've never seen before at professional level – certainly not in North America._

_**Deman:**  We've certainly never seen it in Europe either – I don't think it's a wild guess to say that this is the first Ahri top we've ever seen at Worlds, if not ever period in professional play. We see Morgana as the last pick for OMG, and that has to be just for the added sieging and engage._

_**Riv:**  I would certainly agree. So there's a lot of pick and assassination potential on C9's side, while OMG brings a lot of late-game power, poke and siege. I'll also be interested to see what Carlo's build path is since he will be taking it as the swaps finalize, which means this is the first top-lane Ahri any of us have seen at this level._

_**Deman:**  We will see what happens – you know the deal by now! Make your voice heard on Twitter – tweet @LOLESports with the hashtag #C9WIN or #OMGWIN...Jatt, you just saw something on the screen, laughed and smiled – you want to be the one to tell the people at home what it is?_

_**Jatt:**  We have it on our screens and you guys watching are about to see it on the team comp screen: Carlo has Popstar Ahri picked, and that's the Girls' Generation skin we were talking about – the one inspired by the custom skin made here in Korea that was in turn inspired by the Genie music video.   
_

_(Author's Note: Picture references follow. From top to bottom: (1) A screenshot from the "Genie" music video, (2) Goomrrat (Pasha)'s rendition of what he called Generation Ahri using the same naval uniform, and (3) the official Riot version, Popstar Ahri)  
_

_**Deman:**  And there it is! And as you can imagine, the girls are loving it. We've talked for a while now about how Cloud 9 has interacted with and responded to Girls' Generation...how incredible would it be if this is the pick that gets them over the line and gets North America their first world champion?_

_**Jatt:**  Well, granted, it's way off meta, but the reason we saw Carlo so relieved is that he saw the Ryze and knew that if he picked it, he'd have a matchup that would not be out of place in the mid lane. This is an approach that C9 used a lot when they first qualified for the LCS – on paper, Hai was mid and Balls was top, but they would just treat it as just solo laning and swap constantly. That said, this is obviously to a whole new extent because we've never seen Ahri and Zed in the same team with the stakes this high._

One could tell how many SONEs were in the crowd because they, down to the last person, joined the Soshis in standing up and cheering as the Popstar Ahri pick was shown on the observer camera when the game started.

"Oh, my God, they're doing it!" Tiffany yelled.

She and Jessica then looked at each other and said together, "They're playing our song."

All of the others nodded and smiled wholeheartedly, beaming from ear to ear but waiting to unleash their energy, because the Chinese contingent in the stadium was trying to boost OMG, especially since they were facing elimination: _"OMG, jia you! OMG, jia you!" (Loosely translated, "Let's go, OMG!" or "Come on, OMG!")  
_

Sunny and Taeyeon waited until that cheer faded, caught the eyes of the other Soshis and whispered something. A few seconds later, the whole of Girls' Generation turned around, faced the section behind them and yelled, "C9!  _Hana, dul, set!"_

 _"C9 Fighting!"_  The SONEs and Cloud 9 fans responded, incredibly just as if we were a Korean team.

The girls turned back towards the field and the stage, egging on the chant that was sweeping through the stadium again: _"Cloud 9! Cloud 9! Cloud 9!"_

Meanwhile, we were focusing on our individual objectives for the game. On top of keeping up our vision game as a team, Meteos had to make sure he got tanky enough to be able to handle and negate all the damage OMG could output, while Sneaky was going to be looking for kills even earlier and often because of Draven's Adoration. Meanwhile, Hai had to make sure he got going with Zed while Aurora had to make sure Sneaky stayed alive to protect his Adoration stacks. Lastly, I had to be careful to pick my spots and not be too aggressive since I was electing to start with a Rod of Ages, which would be great later but would take time to both build and fully stack. Thankfully, I got a chance to jump out ahead right when I hit Level 6 and took it.

_**Deman:** Oh, Gogoing's going in, but he's a bit too close! Carlo counters and lands the Charm! He gets his own combo off, Spirit Rush comes out as well, and there it is – First Blood for Carlo!_

_**Jatt:**  What a clutch outplay by Carlo right there for the early advantage. He threw out the Charm even a little before Orb of Deception killed the last minion that would have blocked it and Gogoing didn't see it coming. On top of that, he had enough of a life lead and Gogoing had not yet hit his own Level 6._

_**Riv:**  Looking at Carlo on the player cam, we've just about always seen him focused, but I haven't seen the fire in his eyes that we're seeing now. I think that with everything that's been going on with Cloud 9 and Girls' Generation, he wanted the chance to play Ahri – and I do think it was Popstar Ahri specifically – on this stage, and so far, so good._

"Yes, Carlo!" Tiffany shouted. "Oh, my gosh, it's happening...isn't it?"

"If it keeps going this way, yes." Jessica said. "He looks intense! He also likes to shop quickly if he gets First Blood, so he'll be coming back in with quite a bit more than Gogoing has."

"Yeah, there it is – Blasting Wand and Sapphire Crystal for him while Gogoing is still just on two Doran's Rings." Sunny pointed out.

I was able to make the power count less than a minute after we both got back into lane.

"Oooh, chunked him but couldn't quite get him. He's recalling, though, and he burned his Flash." I said, after I'd worked on landing a combo on Gogoing and forced his Flash but saved the Spirit Rush.

"They're pushing bot but they're up too far. I managed to get a deeper ward that they haven't found yet – you want to help Sneaky get going?" Aurora asked.

"Absolutely." I replied as I started channeling my Teleport. "Coming in hot!"

_**Riv:**  Teleport comes in from Carlo...he Spirit Rushes in, lands the Charm onto San and pops him instantly! Cloud's the next target and Carlo leaves him for Sneaky to finish off for the cash-in!_

_**Deman:**  The vision game and global presence strategy we saw against SK Telecom in that clinching perfect game in the quarterfinals pays off again! They're going to go for the Dragon as well and should be able to take this with OMG's bot lane still down and Loveling not in the vicinity. There it goes – and immediately, all three of them recall with healthy amounts of Gold in their pockets...and those are some big buys. Sneaky gets a BF Sword and Pickaxe on the way to an Infinity Edge while Carlo finishes his Rod of Ages at just twelve minutes gone. That is going to put OMG on a timer as Cloud 9 push their lead to almost 2,500 Gold._

_**Jatt** **:**  It certainly will, especially since Gogoing has yet to finish his. Gogoing will have a bigger power spike later because Carlo is not starting Tear of the Goddess, but unless OMG does something about it, there's going to be a long time where he can't fight Carlo on even footing._

"Yo, bursty Ahri top, Pogchamp." Sneaky said with a big smile as we finished shopping and came back out of our base.

"No kidding." Aurora said. "That TP might have just won us the duo lane – no way we're letting them get back to even there after Sneaky got that much Gold off his passive. I was trying my darnedest to keep him alive and topped off, but that should be no problem now."

After about 15 minutes, I had the Distortion Lucidity Boots done and was finishing up an unconventional second major item in the Iceborn Gauntlet for the area-of-effect and slowing Spellblade for the pushing power, damage split and crowd control, to say nothing of the Mana, Armor (an extra boon against Jayce, Jinx and Rengar) and cooldown reduction. (On top of all of that, in these days, it also boosted Ability Power.)

"You getting your Frozen Fist, Carlo?" Hai asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "What do you say – time to go for the swap?"

"Yeah, let's do it and work on getting that outer mid tower down." Hai answered.

"Sounds great!" I said, and then said determinedly, "Okay, Cool, let's go..."

Two minutes after I went mid against Cool while Hai pushed top against Gogoing, I had taken off half of the target turret's health.

"Loveling's going towards mid – I think he's targeting you, Carlo." Aurora warned.

"I see him." I replied. "I'll save Spirit Rush for if and when he tries to jump in."

"Sounds good. You mind if I counter and join the party if he does?" Meteos asked.

"Oh, heck no." I replied with a big grin.

"Nice!" Hai said. "If Rengar goes in, kill him first unless Jayce goes low since he's lower level and even squishier."

"Got you. Thanks!" I responded.

_**Riv:**  Loveling wants to jump on Carlo, but he's ready for it, Spirit Rushing away and then Charming him! The counter-engage comes in from Meteos and he gets the kill onto his opponent in the jungle! Now it's on to Cool and Meteos just tanks the turret as Carlo takes him down too with the help of the Let's Bounce! That puts him on a killing spree and they're going to get the turret too! That could have easily gone into OMG's favor, but some great reactions there mean it's that crucial outer mid turret going down in C9's favor._

_**Jatt:**  Good decision by Carlo to use his Spirit Rush instead of his Flash to dodge because he has all of that CDR, so he can use that often to be very slippery. Meteos does a good job of getting in position as he saw Loveling going towards mid – this was one instance where they didn't totally know what he was up to but were ready to react if he went in. Aurora even saved her Wish for that exchange and popped it so that they could make cross-map dives if they wanted, and that's going to be a 4,000 Gold lead and the anticipation continues to build here._

By the 20-minute mark, we had the inside track on the Dragon because while we'd given up a few kills – one death each for Hai, Aurora and Meteos – we hadn't given up any towers. That, combined with the fact that our vision was keeping up, allowed us to go for it with just Sneaky, Meteos and me while Aurora and Hai focused on holding our outer mid turret against the entirety of OMG. We'd also taken the southern Rift Scuttler, so we used that speed boost to quickly head back to mid once the Dragon was secured and get into a flanking position that OMG had not warded.

"Nice, nice!" Sneaky said as we arrived just off to the side. "Okay, I'm here and I'm queer. Let's spank these guys!"

"Let's take it. Go, go, go, go!" Hai shouted.

"I've got Jinx, I've got Jinx!" I was shouting.

"Nice! Jayce, Jayce, Jayce! Front line, front line!" Hai yelled.

"Holy f**k, Carlo, are you about to...?" Sneaky asked.

"Oh, my God!" I yelled.

"Aaaaah!" Aurora screamed.

For a moment, it seemed like the world went silent, and then it exploded. Meanwhille, Girls' Generation was also losing it.

"Oh, they got Jinx instantly!" Sooyoung yelled.

"This is going to be big!" Hyoyeon said, tensing visibly.

"Come on, take them all down! This is your chance!" Yuri called.

"It's going to happen! OMG can't hold!" Yoona said.

"Hey, Carlo's got a quadra kill!" Seohyun said, her eyes widening in anticipation.

"Oh, my gosh...Don't tell me..." Tiffany said, her mouth open.

"He's got it!" Taeyeon exclaimed just as the crowd erupted and the notification went up onscreen.

 _"Pentakill! Pentakill! Pentakill!"_  Sunny, Yoona and Sooyoung were screaming in their best Korean caster impression.

Jessica, who had been holding her breath as the fight started, started screaming in joy like the others. "That's our team! That's your boy, Tiff!"

She was holding onto Tiffany not just to hug her but also because Tiffany was bouncing up and down, squealing and looking so happy that she could burst. She then put her hands to her mouth and yelled, " _Aaaah! Saranghaeyo!_ I love you, Carlo!"

It had also been chaotic on the Riot cast:

_**Deman:** In goes Meteos with the Slingshot and Let's Bounce onto the front line as Carlo gets in and pops San! It's a 5-on-4 right away! Cool and Gogoing still in the front lines! Death Mark goes down onto Cool! Spirit Rush and Orb of Deception across the front line and Carlo's got a quadra kill!_

_**Jatt:**  Holy crap, he's going to get it!_

_**All:** Ohhhh! Ohhhh!_

_**Deman:**  I do not believe it! It's a pentakill for Carlo on top-lane Ahri that might have just won Cloud 9 the World Championship!_

_**Riv:**  They're not there yet, Deman, but they can see the finish line and this crowd is roaring them on towards it! They're going straight to Baron and they'll get it without a fight – Let's listen in on them as they take another massive step towards that championship!_

"Oh, my God, I can't believe it worked like that!" I said, stunned, with one hand on my forehead as we took down Baron Nashor without a contest and recalled.

"Holy s**t, that was a great play, Carlo! That's going to make every  _League_  all-time highlight reel from here on out!" Meteos said.

"Hey, we're all writing our names in the history books if we win this!" I responded.

"Damn right!" Hai said. "I just have one thing to say..."

"What's that?" I asked.

Hai wore a knowing smile as he said, "Turn it up!"

"Oh, man!" I said with a big grin.

"Oh, yeah!" Aurora said, her smile even bigger. Even Meteos and Sneaky had knowing smiles because they knew what Hai was talking about.

"Just turn it up!" Hai reiterated.

"Get turnt!" Sneaky yelled.

"Turn it the f**k up!" Meteos shouted.

I started bouncing in my chair, moving and ad-libbing to the beat from  _Genie_ ,  _"Bam...bam-ba-ba-bam...bam-ba-ba-bam..._ Aurora!"

Aurora smiled and sang as I kept the beat going,

_Soweoneul malhaebwa_   
_Ni mamsoge inneun jageun kkumeul malhaebwa_   
_Nimeorie inneun isanghyeongeul geuryeo bwa_   
_Geurigo nareul bwa_   
_Nan neoye Genie-ya kkumiya Genie-ya_

_**English** _   
_Tell me your wish_   
_Tell me that small dream you have within you_   
_Draw that ideal person you have inside your head_   
_And then look at me_   
_I'm your Genie, your dream, your Genie_

_**Deman:**  Wow, how about that? Not only was that amazing, but that was proof if we ever needed it that Cloud 9 knew what they were doing with that Ahri – that Popstar Ahri pick – in front of this audience. It's just been amazing to watch._

_**Riv:**  Well, the Korean title of Genie translates to "Tell Me Your Wish", and the wishes of so many might be coming true in a matter of minutes, both in this stadium and back home. 2-1 up in the best-of-5, 8,000 Gold up in Game 4, Baron buff on all five members...this looks like the moment North America has been waiting for!_

_**Jatt:**  Well, like you said, Riv, this isn't over yet, but I have to say it really does. Everyone on Cloud 9 also finished another item with that extra gold, so it will be even harder for OMG to stop this potentially championship-winning push. Bloodthirster comes out for Sneaky, Locket of the Iron Solari for Aurora, Warmog's Armor for Meteos, Will of the Ancients for Carlo and even a Guardian Angel for Hai. Right now, they're going with a 4-1 splitpush with Carlo off to the side – and keep in mind, he didn't have to use his Teleport to get into that last fight._

"No way!" Jessica shouted. She'd been checking the Riot broadcast and had heard the live Mic Check. "They're actually singing  _Genie_  after that recall!"

"What?!" Tiffany asked, quickly borrowing Jessica's headphones so she could hear and see what had happened. Then she exclaimed, "Those beautiful people...they're going to drive me crazy!"

"Me too!" Taeyeon said, once she'd seen and heard it too. "That's amazing!"

"It really is!" Sunny agreed, before adding, "Also...when they're feeling it that much and having that much fun, they're very hard to beat. We know that feeling."

"We certainly do." Yoona said. "I think they've got this as long as they keep their nerves – oh, look out, Carlo's going in again!"

_**Deman:**  Oh, Carlo gets on towards San again! He dodges the Zap and the Chompers with the Spirit Rush, forces the Flash out and takes him down under the tower! He made that look too easy, really, as he goes legendary at 9/0/2!_

_**Riv:**  _ _He should be able to get this turret as well with that Iceborn Gauntlet helping push it down – and yes, OMG decides to give it up and keep their surviving members mid. You can see Girls' Generation leading the cheers for Cloud 9 again...You get the feeling that as loud as it is right now, if they win another fight, we're going to have bedlam._

_**Jatt:**  I think you're right, Riv. On that subject, Cloud 9 did a good job of clearing out OMG's wards in the top half of OMG's own jungle, so if Carlo decides to come down, they won't have much warning if any._

_**Riv:** You're exactly right, Jatt – they don't see him! Spirit Rush is back up and the Charm goes down on Cool as the tower falls! Hai bursts him down with the Death Mark and there's not enough left for OMG! Meteos is keeping them locked up and Hai is just shredding them! It's a triple kill for Hai in the end and Sneaky even snipes Cloud with the Whirling Death after he Flashed away! That's Cloud 9's second clean ace in a row!_

_**Deman:**  And as you said, Riv, this crowd was primed to explode, and they absolutely have! And you feel they know they are watching the League equivalent of a No. 1 hit as Cloud 9 are looking to bring the curtain down on OMG! They've cracked the base with those kills!_

_**Jatt:**  Mid inhibitor turret is down and so is the mid inhibitor...they could have possibly gone straight for the Nexus, but San is almost back up, so they're gladly just rotating around to the other inhibitors and making sure they do critical damage to that OMG base. But we're not going to have to wait much longer until the party starts!_

"That's it, Hai!" Taeyeon was yelling, almost completely beside herself as she saw Hai score his triple kill as part of that ace. Then she told Jessica, "Sica, make sure you hold me down too...I might lose it!"

"I'll handle that,  _unnie_ _!_ " Yoona said, nodding and smiling at her and Jessica, and she took Taeyeon's hand and added, "But I'm at that point, too – they're so close!"

We said later that as we made our inhibitor rounds, we felt infused, almost sanctified, with a special, pure kind of power: the power to make not just our dreams come true but also the dreams of those who wanted us to come through. We'd last felt it at All-Stars when we'd scored a huge win for North America, but this being Worlds and given who else we were playing for, it was on a whole other level.

"It's been unbelievable, fam. Thanks for everything...we're really going to do it!" Sneaky said, sounding as emotional as I'd ever heard him.

"Hey, thank you, Sneaky – and thank you guys too! Holy s**t, I might lose it, this is beautiful..." Meteos said, his hand off his mouse for a moment.

"We're really going to win it all! For the fans, for the girls..." Aurora said, sounding as if she was about to lose it.

"I'm just about over the edge too, but deep breath – the fat lady hasn't sung yet!" I said, calling upon my nightmare to make sure I kept my wits about me until the end.

"Hey, I feel it too, you guys. Just stay with me – stay together – for  _one more fight_  and we got this!" Hai shouted and we could feel him calling on still more of his energy.

"We got you, don't worry!" I replied.

"Nice! Kill Jinx! Kill Jinx! Jayce, Jayce, Jayce!" Hai yelled.

"We've got 'em! That's game! That's f**king game!" Sneaky was screaming.

_**Riv:** San's trying to kite, but Meteos gets on top of him and Hai takes him out! Carlo's in there too and Charms Cool! Cloud 9 is proving irresistible!_

_**Jatt:** That's it! They've done it!_

_**Deman:**  Oh, my word!_

_**Riv:** A third straight clean ace, and they have done it! In front of a raucous crowd and so many stars, it is Cloud 9 that outshines the competition...winning the 2014 World Championship! The Summoner's Cup is coming to North America!_

When the red OMG Nexus exploded, so did the crowd – and, from what I felt and gathered later, all sixteen of our hearts out of sheer joy. In the stands, Girls' Generation piled into a group hug.

"GG! GG!" Sunny and Sooyoung were yelling, still in their best OGN caster impression.

"Oh, my God, they did it!" Yuri said.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Yoona and Hyoyeon were screaming together.

"Oh, my goodness...look at them! That's our team!" Taeyeon exclaimed, pointing down at us. "That's our team down there! The best in the world!"

"And they saved the best for last." Seohyun said with relish, high-fiving the others.

"You know what else this means, right?" Hyoyeon asked, before answering her own question. "Sica  _unnie_ , you're joining a World Champion!"

Jessica wiped away another tear, smiled and looked down at us onstage. "Thank you..." She whispered, before she told both us and the other Soshis, "I love you all!"

"Me too...I love you all!" Tiffany managed to say, wiping her eyes and giving Jessica a hug before she blew a kiss towards us onstage.

Down below, we had almost hurled off our headsets and jumped out of our seats as we had piled into our own group hug. It took all of fifteen seconds as well before Balls and LemonNation joined us.

"We did it!" Aurora was saying, already sobbing. "We actually did it!"

"Let's f**king go!" Balls said. "You guys were incredible!"

"World Champions!" Hai roared. "Let that sink in! World f**king champions!"

"I think we're all going to need some time...but God, it's already amazing!  _Whoo!_ " I screamed.

" _Woo-hoo!_ " Sneaky cheered, and I saw even he was wiping a tear from his eye.

"Oh, my God, I might look like a wuss, but I can't..." Meteos said, and I saw him take his glasses off and wipe his eyes as he half-sobbed, "It just feels so good!"

"Hey, no shame in that. Feel me – I'm still shaking too!" LemonNation said, clapping him and the rest of us on the shoulders.

We went over and shook hands with Oh My God, and my heart went out to them for a minute as I remembered my nightmare was at least part of their reality. Once we got back around and saw Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming, who had rushed our side of the stage and were motioning to let them hoist them onto their shoulders, our spirits soared even more. Dyrus and Reginald hoisting Hai onto their shoulders and handing him an American flag while HotShotGG and TheOddOne did the same for Aurora while WildTurtle handed her a Canadian flag were two of the sights I loved seeing the most as I draped another American flag around my shoulders while Doublelift and Bjergsen hoisted me up.

Talking to the others later, we all were wondering at that moment if this was what the view from the top of the world looked like and agreed that that was one of the moments that made all the work we'd put in worth it.

"Started from the bottom, now we here!" Aphromoo was telling Sneaky, who was on his and Xpecial's shoulders.

"FeelsAwesomeMan." Sneaky replied. "I'm glad we could do it for you guys. NA, baby!"

After a few minutes, Riot coordinators came and explained that we would go off down the players' tunnel to allow for post-match analysis and some OMG interviews in addition to Imagine Dragons setting up and performing. When we came back out afterwards, it would to receive the Summoner's Cup.

"We'll see you later!" Hai said in the direction of the Summoner's Cup, pointing at it. It seemingly twinkled happily in the light in reply.

We all smiled at that and went off down the pathway and down the tunnel, with the TSM and CLG rosters flanking us as a guard of honor before they stopped on the pathway and returned to their seats. We then turned a corner past the tunnel, and it was there that our eyes fell upon an incredibly lovely sight.


End file.
